<p>Question:
I recently got suspended for writing obscene things that I was planning to do to students and teachers in a notebook. It was not shared, it was lying on the floor and a teacher picked it up. No one read it and it was not being gossiped about or anything. (nothing majorly violent, just like saying a mean thing to an enemy or giving the principal and dean the middle finger) Isn't that a violation of my freedoms of speech and press?</p>
<p>if so, wat are u going to do? call ur lawyer? I mean y would u write things like that in the first place?</p>
<p>It doesn't matter why the OP wrote it. It could be to vent. It's better that one writes that down and gets it out of their system than they actually do that. I think it is a violation of your constitutional rights, but as a minor, you don't have any (I think...) so I would appeal.</p>
<p>It's not against your constitutional rights, as you don't have 1st Ammendment rights in school. No freedom of speech to save you there, the school can definately suspend you and you don't have too much chance of fighting it.</p>
<p>no violation. i agree, pygo.</p>
<p>Also, this event doesn't qualify for illegal search/seizure because while you're in school, the school administration/teachers have the right to take anything from you without probable cause, or a reason.</p>
<p>suck it up. You're a minor, in school. The administration owns you.</p>
<p>Ehh. All I can tell you is that your administration is overly sensitive.</p>
<p>I'd find a new school. A better school.</p>
<p>mmmhmm... this girl must get along well with everyone in school...</p>
<p>well, the truth is, schools can basically do whatever they want. Probabaly the reason you wrote those things. If you would like to get out of a suspension, I would try crying and blaming something else. Crying always works, most teachers are sympathetic. If they are not, then hey, they deserved all that stuff to be written about 'em. So I say, yes that indeed sucks, and umm... Good luck with all that.</p>
<p>Yeah, certainly no violation, but there'd be no use in trying to do something about it anyway. In the time it takes to get some legal "justice," you would have served your suspension and got on with your life and probably stopped caring.</p>
<p>But you learned something: Don't bring notebooks like that to school.</p>
<p>Under several cases ruled on by both State and Appellate Courts, you have no rights in this situation. Freedom of speech is fairly limited within the public (and private) school systems, as the school has a priority to ensure the safety of all students and faculty.</p>
<p>I don't know that I completely agree with what everyone else has said. In Tinker v. Des Moines, the Supreme Court ruled that students who wore armbands to school in protest of the vietnam war were protected under the First Amendment because "the petitioners were quiet and passive. They were not disruptive and did not impinge upon the rights of others. In these circumstances, their conduct was within the protection of the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment and the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth". The court also ruled that "First Amendment rights are available to teachers and students, subject to application in light of the special characteristics of the school environment."</p>
<p>The case that most people are probably thinking of is Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier, but in that case, the Court decided that censorship of a student newspaper was permissible only because the newspaper carried the school's name and was part of the standard journalism curriculum (ie. the newspaper was not intended as a forum for discussion of controversial topics, but rather as a learning "project"). However, the court wrote that the question of whether the student speech must be tolerated (in Tinker) was completely different from the question of whether such speech must be promoted (in Hazelwood). Thus, "educators' ability to silence a student's personal expression that happens to occur on the school premises" is regulated by Tinker and not Hazelwood. Speech such as yours was not "part of the school curriculum", nor was it "perceive[d] to bear the imprimatur of the school". and therefore, is protected under Tinker. </p>
<p>The only exception that I could see is if your writing threatened the safety of other students (and thus infringed on their rights). However, if, as you say, all your writing was was "saying a mean thing to an enemy or giving the principal and dean the middle finger", then I don't see how you could be suspended based solely on what you wrote down and did not intend to share.</p>
<p>School sucks. Just suck it up and wait until graduation. Then you are free to flip off administrators at any time.</p>
<p>I dunno the specifics of the laws, but in general I think Tinker v. Des Moines has been weakened so much that cases like this grasp for precedent that no longer holds weight.</p>
<p>I agree. We talked about this in my English class, and you have extremely limited rights in high school- basically a low security prison</p>
<p>Any lawyer that would pick up this case isn't going to be on contingency...
Basically, rules against illegal search and seizure do not apply in the classroom setting (to echo what has already been said)</p>
<p>And I should add that a notebook is neither symbolic speech nor the press.</p>
<p>you brought those words into the school, and they have their right to pursue whatever action they see fit for your 'harassment' (as they would most likely define it) of other students. you dont want them to read your burn book? leave it at home, simple as that. its really unfortunate that this happened to you, but im afraid that no rights have been overstepped. they probably feel like it would be in the best interests of the other students for you to be removed from the population for a while and give the people who you (i'm asuming) wrote mean things about to calm down. hey, free vacation!</p>