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Case
Summary: Bethel School District No. 403 v. Fraser
Abstract of the case: Bethel
School District No. 403 v. Fraser
Public Speech at School -Sponsored Events
In front of 600 students in a school assembly, 17-year-old Matthew
Fraser, a student at Bethel High School in Washington, strung together
a list of double-entendres, saying the candidate he supported
was “ … a man who is firm — he’s firm in his pants … in his character
… a man who takes his point and pounds it in … who will go to the
very end — even to the climax, for each and every one of you.”
Fraser’s candidate won the election. Fraser was suspended for two
days.
The First Amendment Issue:
The central issue in the 1986 case was whether the First
Amendment prevents a school district from disciplining a high school
student for giving a lewd election campaign speech at a high school
assembly.
The
Decision of the Supreme Court:
The Supreme Court said Bethel High School officials in
Washington did not violate the First Amendment by punishing 17-year-old
Matthew Fraser for a campaign speech that was considered lewd. Both
of the lower courts had ruled for Fraser because there was no disruption
following the speech given in the school auditorium. Chief Justice
Warren E. Burger distinguished between political speech (protected
in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District
in 1969) and vulgar or lewd speech. Because it was a school-sponsored
activity, the Supreme Court said school officials had the right
to punish the risque content of his speech. After Bethel,
rather than providing evidence of substantial interference, as is
required in the Tinker standard, school officials must meet
a standard of reasonableness if they choose to restrict school-sponsored
expression.
The Court held,
- “Under the First Amendment, the use of an offensive form of
expression may not be prohibited to adults making what the speaker
considers a political point, but it does not follow that the same
latitude must be permitted to children in a public school. It
is a highly appropriate function of public school education to
prohibit the use of vulgar and offensive terms in public discourse.
… The inculcation of these values is truly the work of the school,
and the determination of what manner of speech is inappropriate
properly rests with the school board.”
- “The process of educating our youth for citizenship in public
schools is not confined to books, the curriculum, and the civics
class; schools must teach by example the shared values of a civilized
social order.”
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