News

Shinoff and Carelli's Article on "First, Schools Need Order" featured in USA Today.

April 13, 2006

USA Today -- April 10, 2006
Recent events at California's secondary schools have called into question the authority and wisdom of some school administrators who have temporarily limited student expression because of violence and police clashes concerning the immigration issue.

But those administrators should not be admonished. Instead, they should be applauded for putting student safety first.

While students do have First Amendment rights, schools have broad powers to restrict student speech in order to enforce discipline and administer the school. The most recognizable example of this is a teacher telling students to be quiet at their desks while the teacher is speaking. How could students learn if teachers had no power to quiet their classrooms?

School officials have seen a direct link between student expression -- whether it be through speech, banners, badges, flags, or other symbols -- and violence that has occurred on campuses. Given this connection, school officials have reasonably decided to cool off the tensions among students by limiting the students' expression. It is not only constitutionally allowable for officials to do so, it is their duty, too. These school officials may very well be preventing another violent incident such as those that have occurred in Columbine, Colorado, and elsewhere.

Moreover, the U.S. Supreme Court has given school administrators its blessing to curb speech that disrupts class work, causes substantial school disturbance or places students in danger. So long as circumstances might reasonably lead school officials to forecast trouble, student speech may be restricted. Ultimately, school administrators are placed in the very difficult position of being required to determine on a moment's notice what language or action crosses the line.

The school administrators at issue have correctly decided that a student's safety is more important than the right to speak freely. One can only imagine a parent's outrage if his or her child were injured because of another student's speech creating a dangerous atmosphere. That parent would say to school administrators, "Why didn't you do anything to prevent this?" Would the nation's schools really be better off if the law required the response to be, I'm sorry, our hands were tied by the First Amendment"?

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