{"id":53077,"date":"2016-09-30T11:27:00","date_gmt":"2016-09-30T16:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/content.findlaw-admin.com\/ability-legal\/supreme\/legal-commentary\/silencing-student-speech-and-even-artwork-in-the-post-columbine-era.html"},"modified":"2016-09-30T11:27:00","modified_gmt":"2016-09-30T16:27:00","slug":"silencing-student-speech-and-even-artwork-in-the-post-columbine-era","status":"publish","type":"supreme","link":"https:\/\/supreme.findlaw.com\/legal-commentary\/silencing-student-speech-and-even-artwork-in-the-post-columbine-era.html","title":{"rendered":"Silencing Student Speech — And Even Artwork — in the Post-Columbine Era"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Silencing Student Speech — And Even Artwork — in the Post-Columbine Era:
The Relevant Supreme Court Cases, and How They Have Been Misapplied <\/span><\/h1><\/td>\n <\/tr>\n

By DAVID L. HUDSON, JR.<\/h2><\/a><\/td>\n <\/tr>\n

Thursday, Mar. 04, 2004<\/td>\n\n <\/tr>\n <\/table>\n

\tPublic school officials face a daunting task: Ensuring safe schools in the age of Columbine. The rash of school shootings in recent years — including the April 1999 horror at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado — shows that danger does exist from certain disturbed, alienated, and disaffected youth. <\/p>

\tHowever, the response among many school officials has been to overreact by infringing on students’ constitutional rights. <\/p>

One recent federal district court judge wrote that in the wake of Columbine “some schools became like war zones and metal detectors and police officers became commonplace on high school campuses throughout the country.” Unsurprisingly, Fourth Amendments rights, and student privacy, both suffered. <\/p>

\tMeanwhile, First Amendment rights have often also been squelched. School officials have turned to zero tolerance policies with respect to certain types of speech they deemed offensive; to anti-bullying codes; and to more restrictive dress codes — all in the hopes of somehow preventing the next Columbine. <\/p>

\tCertainly, school officials should look for warning signs among disaffected youth. Students who convey true threats should be closely monitored and punished. But some school officials have overreacted, silencing student speech that is neither genuinely threatening, nor genuinely disruptive. <\/p> <\/b>

Examples of How School Administrators Have Overreacted<\/p>

Indeed, as Professors Robert Richards and Clay Calvert write in a recent Boston University law review article: “Quite simply, the events at Columbine gave high school administrators all the reasons — legitimate or illegitimate — they needed to trounce the First Amendment rights of public school students in the name of preventing violence.” <\/p>

If you doubt it, consider the following: <\/p>