On the Social Value of "Gibberish": Student Free Speech and Schools as Public Spaces

• In Event: Hilton Roundtable 22
  In Roundtable Session: Educational Policy

Abstract

Student free speech cases before the Supreme Court have depended in part on whether the students can be seen as acting like adults and deserving of protection from the state’s “normative dominance.” When students have acted like stereotypical adolescents, their speech has been seen as less deserving of such protection. This includes Morse v. Frederick (2004), in which Joseph Frederick’s possibly “gibberish” banner was seen as valueless and Frederick liable to suspension. This paper argues that student speech should be treated with forbearance and only proscribed when disruptive. Drawing from Hannah Arendt, this paper argues that schools should not seek to create initiatory public spaces but tolerate students as they create age-specific social spaces that may be hard to understand.

Author

• Neil Dhingra, University of Maryland - College Park