PARCC+PRACTICE+2

Can students say anything they want at school? __**Freedom of Expression**__ is an important right to express your opinions, religion, or beliefs without fear of punishment. It is in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, so it is a __**primary**__, or original, constitutional **__right__.** A right is a freedom given to a citizen from the government. Yet students have limited rights when they are on school __**property**__. When students are on land owned by a school, they do not have the right to say anything they want. Do you think this is __**just**__, or is it unfair? Several students in history thought the **__restriction__** of their speech was __**unequal**__ and challenged their school’s rules, in order to express their beliefs. In 1969, John Tinker, his sister Mary Beth Tinker, and their friend Christopher Eckhart decided to wear black armbands to high school in Des Moines, Iowa. The armbands represented their __**disapproval**__ of the war. They did not agree with the U.S. fighting in Vietnam. The school did not think the students should be able to express their opinions, so they suspended them for wearing the armbands. Some people thought the students should __**retreat**__, but instead, they fought back. John Tinker took the case to the __**Supreme Court**__, the highest court in the United States of America. The court ruled in favor of the students. The judges said that the students were __**passive**__, not trouble making. The school administration can only restrict student expression if it __**disrupts**__ the mission. || media type="custom" key="26695572" ||
 * || Free Speech at School