Despite some restrictions (bong hits, anyone?), the general principles of the First Amendment apply to public school students. As the Supremes themselves chorused in Tinker v. Des Moines, students do not "shed their Constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate."
Unless, of course, they are black and live in deeply Republican, lily-white St. Tammany Parish.
The Times-Picayune is reporting this morning that some teachers in the parish have forbidden students from discussing the election.
With the excuse that they were attempting to limit "conflict," the teachers have even punished students for speaking the name of the president-elect aloud.
Really.
"She said that if we did talk about (the election) she'd write us up, " 14 year-old Briana Seals, who is black, said of a teacher at Slidell Junior High School.
. . .
Kasey Terrebonne, a senior at Slidell High School who is white, said Principal William Percy announced two days after the election that some students had received detention for discussing it.
And, in perhaps the most bizarre example cited,
In Covington, parent Dominique Elzy, who is black, said she complained to the principal at E.E. Lyon Elementary School after her 7-year-old son told her that he was made to stand along the playground wall after he shouted, "Obama won!" during recess.
Now, I can understand that some teachers and administrators in a parish where McCain beat Obama 76-22 and a region where the KKK runs training camps and kills apostate recruits might be leery of possible friction between white students upset over Obama's victory and black (and white) students celebrating it, but the law is pretty clear on students' rights.
Unless students' speech is "obscene," "libelous," "slanderous" or "disruptive," it is protected by the First Amendment. The "bong hits" case simply added a prohibition against speech advocating illegal drug use.
In this particular case, teachers and administrators using the "disruptive" argument are missing a "teaching moment," assemblies with breakout groups to discuss the election, race, rights and responsibilities. What a great opportunity being squandered.
And what a(nother) perfect example of what's wrong with the Sportsman's Paradise.