The Tinker Case Summary

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At a glance, this case looks a lot like the Tinker case. A student’s silent, passive, symbolic speech is banned because of a policy created before the student could express that speech. Naturally, one would think that the case follows the Tinker case’s path. Except, there’s one big difference between Mira’s case and the Tinker case that has the potential to change the outcome of the case; the Tinker’s speech was political, while Mira’s was not. This would mean that this case would not be held to the same standard as the Tinker case, since political speech is “pure speech”, which requires evidence of actual, significant disruption before the school can ban the speech. Pure speech is on an entirely different level than other kinds of speech.. Therefore, this case does not relate to …show more content…
The policy stated that they would not be allowing “Racial or ethnic costumes”. Now, what exactly would be a racial or ethnic costume? The school explains that it was intending to ban costumes that were being stereotypical or degrading, and that they concluded that Mira’s costume was violating their policy because they saw it as a stereotypical Indian costume. The student’s side argues that the policy is too vague. Since ethnic costumes are technically just attire that is specific to one nation or culture, this policy would ban not just what the school was intending to ban, but also costumes such as Mattie’s gentleman costume, since it’s a representation of a specific period of English culture. Even with the school’s explanation of their policy, what’s counted as “stereotypical” or “degrading” depends on the individual person’s definition of it. The school didn’t clearly explain what would be allowed and what would be banned according to the