Overview of Student Rights in Schools

• Freedom of Speech

• The First Amendment in Schools:  A Resource Guide, National Coalition Against Censorship

• Dress Codes

• School Dress Codes

• School Dress Code Pamphlet,ACLU of Rhode Island

• School Discipline

• School Discipline Pamphlet, ACLU of Rhode Island

• Social Media

• Student Social Media Rights, ACLU Northern California

• Student Protests

• Student Walkouts and Protest at School, ACLU Maine

• Searches and Seizures
• School Search and Seizures 

• 50 Years of Title IX (Everything you need to know about Title IX and its impact on the education system

• 50 Years of Title IX: We're Not Done Yet  
• Title IX: 37 Words that changed everything
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kNG78T9N5c  

• Septima Clark and Citizenship Schools and the Civil Rights Movement

DIGITAL CHOICE BOARD: Student Legal Rights at School

Court Cases that Shaped American Education Timeline

https://www.timetoast.com/timelines/court-cases-that-shaped-american-education

Students do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.”

Tinker v. Des Moines (1969)

Tinker v. Des Moines:

During the Vietnam war many students found themselves holding different political beliefs than their teachers and school administrators. The court case began because five students (four in the Tinker family) in three public schools in Des Moines, Iowa, were suspended for wearing the black armbands pictured above. The bands were to protest the Government's policy in Vietnam and in support of the Christmas Truce.

These resources go into specific details about the Supreme Court Case

• Tinker v. DesMoines--Landmark Supreme Court Ruling on Behalf of Student Expression article by ACLU

• Tinker vs. Des Moines Case NPR Podcast explains how it defined students' rights at school

•  Webpage and pictures about Burnside v. Byars and Tinker v. Des Moines by the Zinn Education Project 

Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
 

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483, was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the segregated schools are otherwise equal in quality. The voting of the Supreme Court was maybe not surprising, but a 9-0 Unanimous vote by 9 white men to declare this as a ruling certainly caught attention nation wide. This was a time when Civil Rights Movements for African Americans were really gathering traction and pushing ahead towards actual progress.

Here is a timeline that encompasses nearly 100 years of history, starting in 1857. This allows a full scope of what had to happen in order to get here. The people that plant the seed sometimes do not get to see the tree, but someone will benefit from the shade eventually.

Here is a video on the summary of Brown v. Board of Education 

What all students should know:

• This poster could be printed out and hung in the classroom as a visual reminder of the rights of students during a protest

• Encourage students to read up on some of the past history of court cases involving students with this old New York Times article

• The Constitution protects students rights but some school officials chose to ignore them or are unaware. This ACLU article is a helpful reminder 

• FindLaw is an excellent online resource for all American people. The Student Rights section goes into detail about a variety of helpful topics including speech, privacy, religion, dress codes, and drug testing.  

• The Student Bill of Rights is written with the goal of helping students address their rights and freedoms that they feel are not being acknowledged by the public education system. All of the writing has been edited, reviewed, and perfected by students and youth activists. Written by students for students this resource might be a good way of getting your own frustrated students to become involved with changing laws.

• 11 rights that all students (should) have from the Student Bill of Rights 

• This is a lesson plan written by the Constitution Center that focuses on legal language for students to assist in teaching rights in the classroom

• The U.S Department of Education's page titled Know Your Rights 

• Massachusetts Department of Education rights page  

Minority Protection: 

• This is a PDF detailing Immigrant students' legal rights  

• This link goes over landmark supreme court cases involving ELL students  

Septima Poinsette Clark and Citizenship Schools for African Americans

Link to her Biography from the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute

• Septima Clark was the founder of many citizenship schools which helped African-Americans register to vote and helped to instruct others in the community on basic math and literacy skills. A hero of student legal rights who should not be forgotten. 

Septima Clark Founded Citizenship Schools

• Her citizenship schools are important because learning how to read helped black southerners push for the right to vote.

• Also her schools were helping to develop leadership skills in people who would help in the civil rights movement.

Citizenship Schools and the Civil Rights Movement

Citizenship Schools in South Carolina

• Septima Clark worked with her cousin Bernice Robinson as well as Esau Jenkins, a bus driver from Johns Island who shared her passion for adult education, to develop the concept for citizenship schools.

• In 1957, they opened a citizenship school on Johns Island that specialized in South Carolina election laws and voting.

• The school focused on literacy so that African Americans could pass the literacy tests to vote following the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965

Highlander Folk School in Tennessee