<p>At school today, we had an assembly. When the principal stepped onto the stage and headed toward the podium to speak, the crowd started booing. I did too, partly out of peer pressure and out of an innate defiance for authority as a teenager. </p>
<p>The problem is that many of us, myself included, were taken out of the auditorium and reprimanded. We all had to apologize to the principal. Those who refused to apologize when asked the first time were given ISSP. </p>
<p>I feel as if we have the right to boo anyone. Is the school's handling of this situation appropriate? I don't think it is, but fortunately I was able to boo without getting into serious trouble. Is there free speech on a school campus?</p>
<p>It wasn’t appropriate, at all. Your booing could actually have meant anything. Who’s to say it wasn’t booing in enthusiastic encouragement of your principal?(; But seriously, you didn’t say anything bad about him, but even if you did and it was true, the truth can’t be libel or slander.</p>
<p>That reminds me of the Peter Zenger case which we covered in APUSH :p. </p>
<p>Maybe I’ll write an editorial for the school newspaper on free speech, booing the principal, libel, and Peter Zenger. Extra credit in APUSH, here I come :D!</p>
<p>do some civil disobedience lol. everyone who got ISSP’s just don’t show up. go to class. haha. organize something to counter this (if you truly believe it is wrong, and able to prove it)</p>
<p>@IceQube trudat. Just took a test on that chapter today!</p>
<p>You do have freedom of speech in school but it is limited. I would think you’re allowed to boo, however, it is up to the school, really. If you happen to know a lawyer you ought to discuss it with him or her, they might have a better view of the situation.</p>
<p>lol IceQube, you don’t have freedom of speech in a school paper. I forget exactly which supreme court case covered this… It might be tinker although that seems the opposite. </p>
<p>School =/= outside world. So them reprimanding you is fine seeing as they aren’t even giving you a real "outside’ world punishment like putting you in jail or lethal injection.</p>
<p>LOL @ everyone going APUSH here … supreme court cases … Peter Zenger … Kent State … :D</p>
<p>In any case, the Tinker case protects free speech at schools, although several qualifiers have been added over the years. One later case granted educators the rights to censor sexual innuendos, another for articles in school newspapers, and another one for drugs. </p>
<p>I don’t think they handled it appropriately. You should bring this up somehow. Maybe not complain, but at least do something. What happened sounds unjust to me.</p>
<p>If I do decide to bring this up, it’ll just be the students against the school board. Our parents are not going to side with us for booing a principal. Nobody is, except for the ACLU …</p>
<p>Free speech is limited everywhere, actually. You can’t go into an airport and yell out “bomb” and then claim the first amendment protects you.</p>
<p>In Tinker v. De Moines the courts decided that speech can only be censored if it was disruptive. Morse v. Frederick and other cases put limitations on this. Generally, if the speech is obscene, libelous, disruptive, or advocates illegal activities, it can be censored in school. </p>
<p>These are the legal definitions, of course. You can’t be held liable or censored if something you say leads to an fight; your speech had to have the fight to begin with. Libelous is slander: it has to be damaging <em>and</em> false. Obscene must fulfill the Miller Test. </p>
<p>You are allowed to talk about controversial issues in school newspapers, at least in California. However, the letter must follow all the other qualifications. If the school won’t publish your letter or piece, make sure it was reasonable. If it was, you can distribute it yourself.</p>
<p>I wrote a letter to the school newspaper about this issue recently. You might want to write a letter, though, to the newspaper, expressing your opinion.</p>
<p>You know, i’m just kidding. sorry. I do think it was incredibly rude, and your whole deliberation about what to do was hard for me to read. Yes, you felt bad when you were reprimanded, and you seem unsettled, and we all have to deal with getting accused of things sometimes, but it’s pretty myopic to connect that feeling bad to meaning someone else must have done something wrong.</p>
<p>This is not the way to get over what happened, to read the code of conduct, etc. It is a way, but it is not a good way. But looking like a fool if you do anything in response to this might be an effective way to learn how to handle similar things differently in the future.</p>
<p>If I remember you are smart. So maybe you just don’t have much experience in dealing with things like what happened to you today. Which is fine. by the way, If your principal was really mean, truly, people would probably have less of a problem with what you did. I would. But you didn’t mention that as a reason for why you booed, so I assumed that wasn’t the case.</p>
<p>This incident clearly stemmed in part from the students’ rudeness, myself included. That’s undeniable. And while I used to vacillate on whether or not the administration’s response was justified, thanks to you guys’ opinions, I feel as if the students are the ones who are at fault.</p>