Threaded Mode | Linear Mode

Prankster813 · 03-02-2016 06:26 AM

Me and some friends are thinking about putting up anti school posters/handing out anti school pamphlets, could the school punish us for this? Or is it protected under freedom of speech? (I live in the United Kingdom, so it may be slightly different from America)

Cianna200 · 03-02-2016 07:28 AM

I think you will be punished for it, it's like hanging up a poster and sending out pamphlets saying "Fuck you all!" Freedom of Speech doesn't necessarily mean freedom to say anything without consequences.

brainiac3397 · 03-02-2016 02:49 PM

Freedom of speech only applies to gubament(as in government you have right to free speech the government can't suppress). School is not government. School can do whatever the fuck it wants until board of education/city tells it not to(thus until government tells it to follow laws. If private school, then you're shit out of luck).

Basically.

Prankster813 · 03-03-2016 04:40 AM

(03-02-2016 02:49 PM)brainiac3397 Wrote: Freedom of speech only applies to gubament(as in government you have right to free speech the government can't suppress). School is not government. School can do whatever the fuck it wants until board of education/city tells it not to(thus until government tells it to follow laws. If private school, then you're shit out of luck).

Basically.

Oh right... Thanks for explaining it, I'll probably still do it but try not to get seen by the teachers. Suspicious

DreamRebel · 03-04-2016 02:04 PM

(03-02-2016 02:49 PM)brainiac3397 Wrote: Freedom of speech only applies to gubament(as in government you have right to free speech the government can't suppress). School is not government. School can do whatever the fuck it wants until board of education/city tells it not to(thus until government tells it to follow laws. If private school, then you're shit out of luck).

Basically.

Except school is pretty much mini-government and in many cases an actual and official part of the government. There is little doubt that they can get into trouble, but it would be not only from evil but hypocrisy as well.

brainiac3397 · 03-04-2016 02:35 PM

Except it isn't "the government". A public school is merely funded by public funds and it's employees are usually approved by a school board, which itself is generally made up of elected members of the public and staffed as a municipal government service.

Thus(in the US) it is generally: school>board>city>superintendent of schools(or the like depending on how it's set up. In this case, the superintendent is part of the county government but a representative of the state government's department of education)>state department of education>state government.

Of course none of that matters because technically the SCOTUS has agreed students have freedom of speech in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District. However, there are various limitations to this, usually revolving around the right of the school to infringe this right if it involves disruptive, vulgar, and/or drug related stuff.

And it is obviously left to the student(or realistically their family) to pursue legal action to challenge the legality of any punishment using the precedent set in Tinker, thus requiring the school to prove whatever it stopped was causing a problem. Which means a lawsuit and lawyers must come in.

Which is pretty much how everything in the US works when doing stuff revolving around a law that requires measures to determine what is right/wrong. However, anti-school posters would probably be very easily seen as disruptive speech thus not protected under the limitations of Tinker.

DreamRebel · 03-04-2016 02:59 PM

It's only disconnected in name, though. Nearly everything a school does is regulated by the government, even if they aren't funded, and in a way they govern their students.
At any rate, what a school calls disruptive is almost purely political, at least in a way. The problem is that nobody has the guts to say it out loud if they've actually thought of it. The way it's aligned is that they'll be called petty if they do.
The issue may be petty or it may not be, but pettiness is fickle and controversial. One could fight over something petty, but they'll only be called petty themselves if people think they're wrong even if they're right.

James Comey · 03-06-2016 08:33 PM

(03-02-2016 06:26 AM)Prankster813 Wrote: Me and some friends are thinking about putting up anti school posters/handing out anti school pamphlets, could the school punish us for this? Or is it protected under freedom of speech? (I live in the United Kingdom, so it may be slightly different from America)

It depends if the school even cares in the first place. In theory, the school could punish you for "disrupting school" or some other bull. I might still have my school planner.

There are a number of rulings on this though. Take a look at Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier.
http://www.nytimes.com/1987/10/14/us/cou...-case.html

According to the ruling, school-run newspapers/media are subject to censorship, but independent media about the school is not subject to control. I'm not sure about libel laws though; in theory, since you're independent, you're allowed to do so accordingly. Some schools might use the zero tolerance policy though... remember though that schools, while technically not government, are still public facilities...

Or they could say you're dumb, immature teens.

Threaded Mode \| Linear Mode Could the school do this?
Author	Message