free speech

Article from Thrun Law Firm 

FEDERAL COURT DEFERS TO PARENTS WHEN IT COMES TO PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE

Avery Doninger was disqualified by officials at Lewis
Mills High School ("LMHS"), in Burlington, Connecticut,
from running for senior class secretary after posting on her
weblog a "vulgar and misleading message about the supposed
cancellation" of a school event called "Jamfest".
Doninger and her mother sued to force LMHS to allow her
to run for secretary, which was denied by a U.S. district
court (See School Law Notes, November 21, 2007). They
appealed the decision, but the Second Circuit Court of

By Marshall W. Grate
A public school district must exercise caution in monitoring off-campus speech. In Layshock v Hermitage School District, (WD PA 2007), a public school district was held to have violated the First Amendment rights of a senior high school student when it issued a 10-day suspension for his creation of a parody profile of the high school principal on the student’s MySpace.com website during non-school hours at the student’s grandmother’s computer.

by Andre F. Mayes

Upholding the principle that students do not “shed their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse gate,” a California state court judge recently blocked a middle school from enforcing a strict dress code policy. Scott v Napa Valley Unified School District, No. 26-37082 (Cal Super Ct July 2, 2007).

In 1998, Redwood Middle School adopted a student dress code policy to control an emerging problem with gangs in the school.

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled that
a student's First Amendment speech rights were not violated
when a Michigan elementary school principal denied the
student's request to sell candy canes containing a religious
message. Curry v School Dist of the City of Saginaw, 2008
US App LEXIS 881 (January 16, 2008), affirming 452 F
Supp 2d 723 (ED Mich, 2006).
The issue, as articulated by the Sixth Circuit, was
"whether an elementary school student has a First Amendment
right to promote an unsolicited religious message

While the Pledge of Allegiance may be recited in public schools, schools may not require students to recite, salute, or stand for the Pledge. Unless a student affirmatively tries to interfere with the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, any student wishing to remain quietly in his or her seat should be allowed to do so. A student should not be punished or sent out of the room for exercising his or her right not to recite the Pledge.

Thrun, Maatsch and Nordberg, P.C.
SCHOOL LAW NOTES

Guidance on Constitutionally Protected
Prayer in Public Elementary and Secondary Schools

This page last modified—February 20, 2003

Introduction