FIRE Starters: Bethel School District v. Fraser — Transcript

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1. 0:00We've learned that public school students
2. 0:01have First Amendment free speech rights
3. 0:03from the Barnette and Tinker decisions.
4. 0:06You'll recall that the Tinker case
5. 0:07was decided in 1969.
6. 0:10Seventeen years later in 1986, the United States Supreme Court
7. 0:14made what has sometimes
8. 0:15been referred to as a "supreme retraction"
9. 0:18in Bethel School District v. Fraser.
10. 0:22The case involved seventeen-year-old
11. 0:24high school junior Matthew Fraser,
12. 0:26who nominated a fellow student
13. 0:28for student vice president,
14. 0:30a guy by the name of Jeff Kuhlman.
15. 0:32Speaking before the school assembly
16. 0:33of 600 students, Matthew Fraser engaged
17. 0:37in what the court described as
18. 0:39an "elaborate and explicit sexual metaphor."
19. 0:42He said that Jeff Kuhlman was
20. 0:43someone who was firm his beliefs, firm in
21. 0:46his pants. Somebody who would push hard,
22. 0:48taking it to the climax.
23. 0:51The speech before the school assembly
24. 0:52caused some laughter and hooting and hollering
25. 0:54among the students, but no real disruption.
26. 0:57Unfortunately for Matthew Fraser,
27. 1:00school officials were less than pleased,
28. 1:02and they suspended him for violating
29. 1:04a "no disruption policy."
30. 1:06Matthew Fraser fought the case all the way to the
31. 1:08United States Supreme Court.
32. 1:10He emphasized that he was engaging in a political speech,
33. 1:13and was not intending to be disruptive in any way.
34. 1:16However, on July 7, 1986, in the last
35. 1:20opinion that he ever wrote for the Court,
36. 1:22Chief Justice Warren Burger wrote,
37. 1:26"The undoubted freedom to advocate
38. 1:27unpopular and controversial views in schools and classrooms must be balanced
39. 1:29against the society's countervailing
40. 1:31interest in teaching students the boundaries
41. 1:33of socially appropriate behavior."
42. 1:36He also wrote that: Surely it's a highly
43. 1:37appropriate function of school officials
44. 1:39to prohibit student speech
45. 1:41that is vulgar, lude, or plainly offensive.
46. 1:45The Court emphasized the marked distinction
47. 1:48between the political speech of the
48. 1:50Tinker students who wore black peace armbands
49. 1:52to school and Matthew Fraser's
50. 1:55elaborate sexual metaphor.
51. 1:58Ultimately, the Fraser case stands for the principle
52. 2:01that public school officials can
53. 2:02prohibit indecent student speech in the
54. 2:05public schools.