Monday Jul 22nd, 2024

The Constitution’s Protections Do Not Cease at the Schoolhouse Door

schoolhouse

After a first-grade student made a simple drawing in school that suggested “all lives matter, the school determined the drawing might offend others (though no student complained or was upset by the drawing) and punished the student by prohibiting her from drawing at school and banned her from recess for two weeks. But when the student’s mother filed a First Amendment lawsuit against the school district, a federal district court in California sided with the school, holding that, in the classroom, elementary school students have no First Amendment rights. This case is now in the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Our brief highlights that elementary-school students have free speech rights like every American. Children do not forfeit their constitutional rights when they walk through the schoolhouse doors. As we explain in our brief, the U.S. Supreme Court has recognized that public school students are protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The Center urges the Ninth Circuit to reverse the district court’s ruling and to uphold freedom of speech for all students.

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