No Free Speech at Schools?

I caught this through Charlie Pierce at the Globe, and I can't even make sense of the court's decision.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/11/05/MNDQ1G1R78.DTL

 

"Rakheem Bolton he's our man if he can't assault me no one can"

 

It's been that way for a while. I had teachers in junior high and high school (this was some time ago) tell me my free-speech rights stopped at the school door. Judging by rulings like the "Bong Hits 4 Jesus," the malaise has spread.

 

I still argue against any infringement upon Freedom of Speech, even if it occurs within a school. I can understand things that disrupt the school day, but why is not cheering for someone alleged to assault you an unacceptable statement? If someone tries to kill me, is it wrong for me to be angry at that person? To me, it's indefensible.

 

I understand the ruling, but unless there is more to this story than we are reading, the school administration was way out of line. Why turn this into a fight? It's not like she was screaming about the guy. She just wouldn't cheer for him.

 

The court is right. That may have been a common decency issue, but it wasn't a free speech issue.

 

The court may be right. Can't imagine why you would kick the girl off the cheerleading team, though. Crazy.

 

I think the court is right with the judgement, but the school is idiotic for kicking the girl off.

 

"Bush appointees what do you expect?" / Charles Pierce

 

That was my thought, too. The school needs to have the right to do it, but the administrators should have the sense not to. Unless there is something more to the story that we don't know about but the adminstration does.

Given the reaction, particularly that of the lawyer, I'm guessing there really isn't more. They just want to shut her down because they can.

 

Remember, we're dealing with bureaucracy here. They can't make decisions without hiring a consultant, or convening a focus group, or the ilk. How can you expect common sense to prevail? We're also dealing with groups that think school officials have the right to spike content in school newspapers, freedom of the press be damned.

 

When the President is giving the State of the Union address, do you think that you should be able to walk behind him during it with a picket that says, "Where's the birth certificate?"