Freedom Of Speech Should Be Taught In Schools Essay

Words: 1310
Pages: 6

The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees the freedom of speech to its people. Everyone has the right to express their thoughts. However, there are some limitations that the society create in order to keep their area in peace, and school is one of the example. Even though students’ freedom of right is protected by the U.S. Constitution, it is necessary for school to limit their freedom of speech while they are at school because school is an educational institution, the students are still immature, and one’s freedom can end when others’ freedom start.
School is a place where students go to learn and study. The students spend seven hours in the school every day. It is not an easy task to stay focus in class for whole day. In order
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People under 18 years old are usually still immature. They are in a transition state from children to become adults. In this age, they already can make decision for themselves, but they still need adults’ guidance to choose the right decision because they often choose the wrong decision. It is important for parents and teachers to look after them. Many times students do not think the consequences for expressing their thoughts in public. The recent example was the tension “between certain gay and straight students” in Poway High School in 2003 and 2004 (Reinhardt). The cause of the tension was the “Day of Silence” activity that was held by a student group called the Gay-Straight Alliance. The Assistant Principal said that the activity is “to teach the tolerance of others, particularly those of a different sexual orientation” (qtd. in Reinhardt). Not all students tolerate homosexuality. Some of the students made comments of anti-homosexual. Not only that, one of Poway High School student, Tyler Hyper, wore a hate-homosexuality shirt that said “Be Ashamed, Our School Embraced What God Has Condemned” on the front, and “Homosexuality Is Shameful” on the back of his shirt (qtd. in Volokh). The T-shirt and hate comments incidents caused tension between the Gay-Straight Alliance students and the opposition students. The tension may cause physical fighting between students. If the fight happen in school, it will interrupt the school activities. Activities in school are disturbed because the immaturity of the students in expressing their thoughts to public. In order to avoid another incidents in the future, it is necessary for the school to limit its students’ freedom of speech by guiding both Gay-Straight Alliance students and other students to respect others’ view in sexual orientation. They might disagree to one’s idea, but they still need to know how to express their disagreement