Black Armbands Should Be Allowed In Public Schools Essay

Words: 495
Pages: 2

Do your teachers and principals have the right to keep you safe? Should they get in much trouble and lose their jobs because a student provoked strong and emotional reactions from other students, causing a fight or injury, and they did nothing to prevent it from happening? If they heard that students planned on wearing armbands, that for other students would most likely bring up very strong views and feelings, yet did not ban students from wearing them, and it did result in violence— it would be very difficult to say that the teachers were unaware of the other protests in 1965, have they be sued? The teachers and principals of public schools, as guardians, have the right and the responsibility to restrict symbolic speech they determine to be provocative and that could possibly create a violent situation.
This is very different than other types of free speech that the school did allow, for example— campaign buttons; because Vietnam protests, teachers feared, could cause violence. Campaign buttons are simple things that are promoting certain individuals to an office to represent a group of people and their political ideology. These are examples of free speech that the school allowed students to exercise, as they promote someone on the behalf of others over something that they think is best for their country.
…show more content…
The opposition was something in the name of which people were inflicting harm on themselves and was a tense subject that was taking away from the productivity and wellness of our country. One might argue the black armbands were the same as other examples of free speech and that they were only banned because the school disagreed with the Tinkers. However, the black armbands were in fact very different from other forms of free speech that were for the betterment of our