NCJ Number
163095
Journal
St. John's Law Review Volume: 69 Issue: 3-4 Dated: (Summer-Fall 1995) Pages: 481-513
Date Published
1995
Length
33 pages
Annotation
Recent judicial decisions related to students' rights to privacy and due process demonstrate the trends and changes since the U.S. Supreme Court's 1969 decision, in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, which recognized that students have rights in public schools.
Abstract
The Tinker decision concerned a group of students who wore black armbands to school in protest of the Vietnam War. The Court held that these students had free speech rights in schools as long as their actions did not cause substantial disruption of or material interference with school activities or infringe on the rights of others. The Tinker decision served as a precursor for many students' rights cases. In 1985, the Court interpreted students' rights to privacy in New Jersey v. T.L.O.; in 1975, it focused on due process rights in the case of Goss v. Lopez. These decisions and the increasing emphasis on student safety and security mean that the extent to which students may exercise their rights under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments could well depend on the jurisdiction, State, or even the school system where the student lives. We seem to have forgotten Tinker's message that students have right in schools and, by focusing mainly on administrators' authority related to safety and security, to have overlooked the schools' primary role of educating, inspiring, and teaching youth about democratic ideals. Footnotes