Let the Students Speak!: A History of the Fight for Free Expression in American Schools

From a trusted scholar and powerful story teller, an accessible and lively history of free speech, for and about students.

Let the Students Speak! details the rich history and growth of the First Amendment in public schools, from the early nineteenth-century's failed student free-expression claims to the development of protection for students by the U.S. Supreme Court. David Hudson brings this history vividly alive by drawing from interviews with key student litigants in famous cases, including John Tinker of Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School District and Joe Frederick of the "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" case, Morse v. Frederick. He goes on to discuss the raging free-speech controversies in public schools today, including dress codes and uniforms, cyberbullying, and the regulation of any violent-themed expression in a post-Columbine and Virginia Tech environment. This book should be required reading for students, teachers, and school administrators alike.

Hudson (First Amendment Center, Vanderbilt U.) reviews stories and cases involving struggles over student free speech rights in US schools, from the 1858 case of an eleven-year old who insulted his teacher while not in school and received a rawhide whipping for it the next day, a case that went to the Vermont Supreme Court, to the 2010 defamation cases involving student use of MySpace to mock school principals. Annotation ©2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

"David Hudson's Let the Students Speak reflects a masterful blending of law and public policy as it focuses on key issues of free speech in the secondary school context. It should prove as useful and timely for First Amendment lawyers as for school administrators and the broader community, and of course for students and the groups in which they engage. Building on an impressive understanding of where the law has taken us in this field, Hudson wisely warns of the regrettable impact of government censorship upon far too many outspoken students and the messages they seek to convey."-Robert M. O'Neil, Director of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression

 

Editor’s Note (Christopher Finan)

 

Introduction

1 No Rights for Students

2 The “Fixed Star”

3 Buttons and Armbands

4 A New Era

5 Supreme Retractions

6 Bong Hits

7 Columbine

8 The Dress Debate

9 The New Frontier

Conclusion The Fragile Future

 

Acknowledgments

Notes

Index of Cases