Does the banning of symbolic armbands in public schools violate freedom of speech as stated in the First Amendment? This argument made its way up to the Supreme Court on November 12th, 1968. The case was called Tinker v. Des Moines. Three students wore black armbands around their arm to support peace, because it was during the Vietnam War. The students involved were John Tinker, 15, Mary Beth Tinker, 13, and Christopher Eckhart, 16.
Two Jehovah's Witness school children, ages 10 and 12, Lillian and William Gobitis were suspended from school for refusing to salute the American flag in Minersville, Pennsylvania. The Gobitis children were Jehovah's Witnesses; they believed that such a gesture of respect for the flag was forbidden by their religion. Their parents claimed that the children's' due process rights had been violated by the school district, they believed their children had the right to refuse to say the Pledge. In an 8-to-1 decision, the Court upheld the mandatory flag salute The Court held that the state's interest in "national cohesion" was "inferior to none in the hierarchy of legal values" and that national unity was the idea of national security. The court found that the flag was an important symbol of national unity and that school children should respect and salute
Any student who failed to follow the policy would be sent home immediately and suspended until they decided to follow the schools policy. The families of those fellow students didn’t decide to file a lawsuit until after the Iowa Civil Liberties Union approached their family, and ACLU agreed to help the family with their case. The parents in turn, filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court, which upheld the decision of the Des Moines school board. The courts seven to two decision held that the first amendment applied to public schools, and that administrators would have to demonstrate constitutionally valid reasons for any specific regulation of speech in the classroom. The court observed, " it can hardly be argued that either students or
When school is in session, school officials have control over students and their behavior. However, the power of public school officials over students is not supreme. Public schools are under the Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment which gives citizens protection of their individual liberties from governmental interference. Public school officials must obey the demands of the Constitution. The Supreme Court ruled in the 1943 case West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette that school officials violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments when they punished students and their parents for the students’ refusal to salute to the American flag.
Many parents were arrested for trying to enlist their children in to all white schools. Because enlisting them was not a crime they were falsely arrested for loitering. A man by the name of dennis was arrested for loitering while trying to enlist 11 African American students into a white school (document). At times like this racism was at an all-time high. Many African American parents were losing jobs if they supported the lawsuit.
In Tinker v. Des Moines, Christopher Eckhardt, John Tinker, and Mary Tinker decided to join their parents in the fight against the Vietnam War. The students were going to wear black armbands with the peace symbol to school in order to show their support. Unfortunately, the principals of the Des Moines, Iowa learned about these plans. In efforts to steer clear of disturbances, on December 14th the principals created a policy that stated any student wearing a black armband would be asked to remove it. If the student refused to remove the armband, the student would be suspended.
These groups were determined to prevent integration at all costs. In 1957 the principal of Little Rock High School was getting death threats and threats to bomb the school. Yet another cause was that Eisenhower had little faith in the measures to support the Black community in the south because a change in heart was required and you can not enforce that. He felt that enforcing these laws may make matters even worse. When Eisenhower finally did something and sent the 1,000 paratroopers, a lot of the people in America were extremely annoyed, the west and north were angry that it didn't happen sooner and the south were angry that it happened at all, and disowned Eisenhower as a southerner.
In order to cut down on the number of students who leave school without permission, schools should do away with their inadequate in-school suspension policy, and adopt the new alternative policy known as billiam. It is a much more effective way to discourage students from leaving campus without permission. Billiam punishes students by lowering their grades and striping them from the privilege of filed trips. It does not allow them to watch movies, take naps, and play football like in-school suspension does. It is real punishment for a real problem.
He witnessed a lot of racism growing up; seeing his house burned down and his father being killed. He had it rough growing up, and he was angry with all that had happened because of the racism in America, and he just wanted blacks to be able to defend themselves. But with how America was back then, whites would have been living in fear, because newspapers would be printed out saying “Blacks strike again” on the headline. King did not want blacks to retaliate because it just would have added to the fire. With everything that King stood for and how he was able to back them with such powerful speeches; it’s easy to say that King’s philosophy made more sense than Malcolm X’s
Because of lack of communication Elizabeth Eckford, one of the nine students, she was forced to march up the street alone with people shouting insults. Violence broke out and troops had to be sent to make sure that the students could attend school safely. This was quite effective as a result of 2,600 African American students were attending a white-only school. To put African Americans and white children in the same classrooms was very effective because such a change was meant to alter the attitudes and socialization of children at the youngest of ages meant the end to segregated schools as children had become accused to sharing facilities with the black race. Although