Students Fighting for Their Rights?

This month the school board for a high school in the San Francisco Bay Area has decided to require Breathalyzer tests for students attending various school events.

Although the school has had some really nasty incidents with kids and alcohol, I was still kind of disturbed to read about students being forced to submit to alcohol testing as it seemed like a violation of civil rights. This got me wondering about the state of students' rights today and if teens are actively protesting mandatory drug testing, locker searches, censorship of student newspapers, etc.

When I was an editor at my public high school newspaper we were all instructed about a 1969 Supreme Court ruling that students did not "shed their constitutional right to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate." This empowered us to report on controversial topics and not be deterred by school administrators. I'm hoping that teens still feel that their rights are intact, but by taking a look at websites from the ACLU and the Student Press Law Center, it's clear that it is still a struggle to maintain these rights.

Similarly, it's worth mentioning that a recent Wall Street Journal article (this email link will work for non-subscribers for 24 hours or so, then registration/online subscription required) pointed out that the history of student activists has often been overlooked. For example, Rosa Parks is the public face of civil rights activism in the 1950s, even though many teens were instrumental during the same time period, but were often considered to be more questionable role models for the protest movement and thus have been left out of the history of the civil rights movement.

To find out more about breaking news in student rights, visit the ACLU website which has information about privacy issues surrounding drug testing, dress codes, sexuality and the distribution of personal information (SCARY!!) to outside agencies like the military.

To keep current on the latest in student press issues, the Student Press Law Center is a great resource. They also give out High School and College Press Freedom awards every year. Kudos to those student journalists who are fighting the system!

Categorized under: Education

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