School District Won't Punish Students In Nazi Salute Prom Photo Due To First Amendment

[violetpastille]

4. The easy thing to do would be to

Apologize and promise to do better going forward. And keep cranking out Nazis.

But I mean I guess there is precedent. (?)

In Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (1969),[140] the Supreme Court extended free speech rights to students in school. The case involved several students who were punished for wearing black armbands to protest the Vietnam War. The Court ruled that the school could not restrict symbolic speech that did not "materially and substantially" interrupt school activities.[141] Justice Abe Fortas wrote:

First Amendment rights, applied in light of the special characteristics of the school environment, are available to teachers and students. It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate . . . . [S]chools may not be enclaves of totalitarianism. School officials do not possess absolute authority over their students. Students . . . are possessed of fundamental rights which the State must respect, just as they themselves must respect their obligations to the State.[142]