Why Is The First Amendment Important To Students

Historically, combining hundreds of kids together in one building for seven hours a day can cause some issues to arise. With these issues, administrators must take the rights of students into consideration. Furthermore, an issue that stands out amongst students is the First Amendment; the right to freedom of speech, press, religion and peaceful protest. With each situation that comes up in which a student’s rights are questioned, one must consider if students are protected by the First Amendment as regular citizens. Students are protected by the First Amendment to a degree; because they are in an environment of heightened security and focus on safety, there are situations in which their right cannot be protected in order to keep the school environment orderly and secure. These situations include instances that display a potential threat to
This especially includes anything that is deemed a threat or could possibly cause harm to another student and/or staff. For students, the First Amendment does not ever protect threats. Examples of students not being protected by the First Amendment after issuing a threat can be seen in the Wynar v. Douglas County case as well as the Pickerington Central High situation that included racially charged threats. Referring to these cases, it does not matter if the threat was made outside of school; as long as the threat involves school or someone within the school, the First Amendment does not protect such. Historically, students and staff have been put in immense danger due to threats and then execution of those threats. Now taking this into consideration, school officials must taking every threat made seriously, whether it be inside the school building or otherwise. Students are in an environment where safety is the number one priority. Because of this, anything they say that is deemed a threat cannot be protected by the First