Summary Of Lebanon School District Vs Ditchfield

In the case Lebanon School District v. Ditchfield, Andrew Ditchfield, a senior at Lebanon High School, spoke before the entire school regarding the nomination of a fellow student for the school government. During his remarks, he made several crude jokes, inappropriate references, and risqué innuendos. The candidate was elected for office but the principal deemed Ditchfield’s speech inappropriate and a violation of school disciplinary codes and suspended him for 3 days. He was also removed from the list of people able to make graduation remarks and his acceptance to Dartmouth College was revoked. The major issue of this case is whether it was a violation of his 1st Amendment rights if the school suspended him because of his inappropriate
403 v. Fraser, and Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier. Bethel School District No. 403 v. Fraser is a case almost identical to this one and is a clear representation of how the Supreme Court should rule regarding this situation. In this case, to nominate a classmate for elective office, made a speech including many sexual metaphors to an assemble of 600 students. The Bethel School District saw this a violation of their disciplinary code and so Fraser was suspended for 2 days. This case was ruled 7-2 in favor of the school district. In the majority opinion, Chief Justice Burger in the majority opinion stated, “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…The schools, as instruments of the state, may determine that the essential lessons of civil, mature conduct cannot be conveyed in a school that tolerates lewd, indecent, or offensive speech and conduct such as that indulged in by this confused boy.” The decision was made in favor of the district because the speech was classified as “immature conduct” which means that the school has the power could act on this