Tuesday February 24, 2009 marked the 40th anniversary of the Tinker vs. Des Moines Supreme Court case. Decided on February 24, 1969 the case decided that the First Amendment applied to public schools, and that administrators


would have to demonstrate constitutionally valid reasons for any specific regulation of speech in the classroom.
    The case occurred in December of 1965 when John F. Tinker, John’s younger sister Mary Beth Tinker, and their friend Christopher Eckhardt decided to wear black armbands showing peace symbols on them to their schools in their home town of Des Moines Iowa.  The students wore the armbands as a form of protest against the Vietnam War. As a result the students were suspended from school until after January 1, 1966, when they planned to end their protest.
    The parents of the Tinkers’ then filed suit against the school district, and after a series of appeals took it all the way to the Supreme Court where the decision was eventually made.
    This decision has helped to shape the modern view of student rights within school. Without this case there still may be that gray are of what a students’ rights are within the campus.
    “In 1965, when I was 13, I had no idea that our small action would one day inspire students to speak up for their rights, or that it would lead to an important decision by the Supreme Court,” Mary Beth Tinker said to students at North Central High School in Indiana. “I have since learned, and this is what I tell young people, that this is how history is usually made, by the seemingly small actions of ordinary people.”

For more information on the case visit: http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/comm/free_speech/tinker.html