Student speech

Most democracies write some protection for expression. The exact test changes by country and by place: street, public school, private school, workplace, platform.

United States public-school map: Tinker v. Des Moines (1969) said students do not shed speech rights at the schoolhouse gate, and a school needs a reasonable forecast of substantial disruption or invasion of others’ rights to punish that kind of political expression. Fraser (1986) allowed punishment of a lewd assembly speech. Hazelwood (1988) allowed editorial control of many school-sponsored student newspapers for legitimate pedagogical reasons. Morse (2007) allowed restriction of speech at a school-supervised event that the school reasonably viewed as promoting illegal drug use. Mahanoy (2021) limited a school’s reach into a vulgar off-campus snap, without saying schools can never touch off-campus speech.

Private schools and private platforms are usually not the government. Their codes and terms can close a paper or an account even when a public school could not.

Readers outside the United States: find whether your school is a state institution, find the expression clause in your constitution or education statute, and do not assume Tinker is local law.