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Section Summaries
The Big Ideas
Privacy
Free Expression
Symbolic Speech
Censorship
Courts
Due Process
Laws
Checks and Balances

The Third Branch
Landmark Cases
The Third Branch

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The Big Ideas Section contents
The Big Ideas menu bar > Censorship

Free Speech
The Free Speech module introduces students to the First Amendment right to free speech and tells a story about a student being suspended from school for wearing an anti-war t-shirt.  The module also discusses the landmark case Tinker v. Des Moines School District, which focued on students wearing black armbands to school in protest of war.

Free Press
The Free Press module tells a story about a principal’s decision to censor a story for the school newspaper concerning a student who flunked a civics class but was allowed to retake the test so she could be in the school play.  While the landmark case, Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier, is not specifically detailed because of the difficulties of illustrating the sensitive subject matter, the principles and findings of the case are covered in a book sequence at the end of the Free Press module.

Protesting
The Protesting module introduces students to the First Amendment right to assembly.  The main storyline concerns the newsies’ strike at the turn of the century but also discusses the farmworkers' movement and the Civil Rights movement.  The module also talks about the case Edwards v. South Carolina, involving the arrest of young people protesting Jim Crow laws and segregation. 

 

   Big Ideas sub-menu image
 
 
 
 
 
    Scene from Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier  
Protest scene from Edwards vs. South Carolina
 
"Free press" in schools
  
Protest scene from Edwards vs. S. Carolina