Renville V. Fargo High School Case Study

Josh Renville, an 18 year old student attending Fargo North High School has petitioned against the school in question for violating his first amendment right to freedom of speech. The school prohibited Renville from using a photograph in which he his holding his favorite rifle for his senior portrait in the yearbook. Renville claims that by prohibiting the photograph, the school is infringing on his rights to freedom of symbolic speech. Despite Renville’s claims, the actions taken by the administrators at Fargo North High were completely constitutional. Fargo North was acting well within their constitutional limits to promote the ideals of public education, to properly monitor any media that would have been associated with the school, and to limit any action that inherently interfered with the school’s disciplinary
However, after viewing North Fargo High School’s student handbook, Mr. Renville’s senior portrait clearly violated the school guidelines which state: “No student will knowingly possess, handle, carry, or transmit any weapon or dangerous instrument in any school building, on school grounds, in any school vehicle or at any school-sponsored activity.4” .The image Renville provided clearly violates the school guidelines and does not pass the “Tinker Test”, therefore the ruling delivered in Tinker v Des Moines independent Community School District does not apply to the supposed infringement on Renville’s freedom of speech