In 1965, a group of Des Moines high school students, led by siblings John and Mary Beth Tinker, decided to demonstrate against the Vietnam War by wearing black armbands to school. Learning of the planned protest, school officials adopted a policy that would require students to remove the armbands or be suspended. The American Civil Liberties Union charged that the school violated the students' First Amendment rights. The U.S. Supreme Court struck down the policy, ruling that students do not shed First Amendment liberties "at the schoolhouse gate." However, the justices recognized that school authorities can limit students' free speech rights under certain circumstances, resulting in the so-called Tinker standard.
The Tinker standard requires balancing the free speech rights of students against the right of school officials to maintain an orderly environment that is conducive to learning. This means that schools may abridge student expression if there is a legitimate concern that such expression will be disruptive to the learning environment or violate the rights of others. Educators may not, however, censor student expression simply because they do not like it. In the years following the decision, courts and schools have applied the Tinker standard to a variety of issues, including dress codes and school-sponsored media.
By overturning a ban on wearing armbands as a form of protest, the Supreme Court recognized that clothing sometimes acts as a means for expressing ideas. In the years following the Tinker decision, courts across the country have grappled with cases related to school dress code policies. In 2001, for example, a federal appeals court in Kentucky outlined standards for determining whether school policies violate students' First Amendment rights. The court ruled that school officials may prohibit clothing that is vulgar, obscene or worn in a manner that disrupts school activity, according to a policy briefing from the Education Commission of the States.
Nearly 20 years after Tinker, the Supreme Court addressed the extent to which the Tinker standard applies to school-sponsored media, such as school newspapers and other publications. In 1988, the Supreme Court ruled in Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier that a high school principal did not violate students' rights by censoring two student articles on pregnancy and divorce in a school newspaper. The justices ruled that school officials can exercise editorial control over school newspaper content for reasons related to instructional concerns.
The Supreme Court decision in Tinker allows school authorities to limit student speech and expression to protect the rights and safety of other students, making the standard applicable to issues of "cyberbullying," the practice of using the Internet and other digital technology to harass others. In a paper on cyberbullying and school law, educator and lawyer Nancy E. Willard pointed out that cyberbullying impacts the school environment even when the actual harassment occurs off campus. Willard recommended school policies that allow educators to respond to off-campus cyberbullying in a way that meets the Tinker standard, such as by adding the offense to a list of prohibited student behaviors.