Essay Database

In December 1965, a group of adults and students in Des Moines held a meeting. The group determined to publicize their objections to the hostilities in Vietnam and their support for a truce by wearing black armbands during the holiday. The students who were at the meeting, three public school pupils in Des Moines, Iowa, were suspended from school for wearing black armbands to protest the Government's policy in Vietnam. The protestors included high school students …

…when a conflict comes up concerning a student who has been punished for engaging in non-school sponsored expression. Now the burden is on school officials to reasonably show that student speech could very well be disruptive before they can censor it. This case holds extreme importance to our school systems today. Students cannot learn the ideals of democracy if their constitutional rights to freedom of speech and expression must be left at the schoolhouse gate.