Looking Back
“Tinker came out of the Vietnam era, which was a time of great social ferment,” says Paul McMasters, worker of the First Amendment Center. “It was all right to question authority and to protest and to state your beliefs loudly and clearly, which is what the students in Des Moines did.” (1)
The Tinker decision was embraced by First Amendment advocates, but others feared that giving students, especially College and High School Students, greater First Amendment rights was dangerous. (2) This concern was particularly relevant in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when student activism and free expression were at their peak in the United States. The case was one of the first cases that the first Supreme Court specifically provided protection for students’ First Amendment rights. (3)
“Within a year of the decision we saw dress codes relaxed, hair codes relaxed, Justice Black was correct in his dissent when he said the decision would usher in a new era of permissiveness.” - Christopher Eckhardt
Under the Tinker ruling, the advisers believed, students could be prevented from publishing articles in a school newspaper only if the articles were libelous, inappropriate or “materially and substantially interfered with the requirements of appropriate discipline in the operation of the school.” (5)
(1) - Paul McMasters, as quoted in, Education for Freedom, Lesson plans for teaching the First Amendment, Case Summary: Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District , 2007 , http://www.freedomforum.org/packages/first/curricular/educationforfreedom/supportpages/L08-CasesSummaryTinker.htm
(2) - Johnston John. W , The struggle for student rights: Tinker v. Des Moines and the 1960s. University Press of Kansas, 1997.
(3) - Ibid
(4) - Chrispoher Eckhardt, as quoted in, Education for Freedom, Lesson plans for teaching the First Amendment, Case Summary: Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District , 2007 ,
(5) - Ibid
The Tinker decision was embraced by First Amendment advocates, but others feared that giving students, especially College and High School Students, greater First Amendment rights was dangerous. (2) This concern was particularly relevant in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when student activism and free expression were at their peak in the United States. The case was one of the first cases that the first Supreme Court specifically provided protection for students’ First Amendment rights. (3)
“Within a year of the decision we saw dress codes relaxed, hair codes relaxed, Justice Black was correct in his dissent when he said the decision would usher in a new era of permissiveness.” - Christopher Eckhardt
Under the Tinker ruling, the advisers believed, students could be prevented from publishing articles in a school newspaper only if the articles were libelous, inappropriate or “materially and substantially interfered with the requirements of appropriate discipline in the operation of the school.” (5)
(1) - Paul McMasters, as quoted in, Education for Freedom, Lesson plans for teaching the First Amendment, Case Summary: Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District , 2007 , http://www.freedomforum.org/packages/first/curricular/educationforfreedom/supportpages/L08-CasesSummaryTinker.htm
(2) - Johnston John. W , The struggle for student rights: Tinker v. Des Moines and the 1960s. University Press of Kansas, 1997.
(3) - Ibid
(4) - Chrispoher Eckhardt, as quoted in, Education for Freedom, Lesson plans for teaching the First Amendment, Case Summary: Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District , 2007 ,
(5) - Ibid