NCJ Number
163093
Journal
St. John's Law Review Volume: 69 Issue: 3-4 Dated: (Summer-Fall 1995) Pages: 379-419
Date Published
1995
Length
41 pages
Annotation
Autonomy ideology and its application to the rights of children in public schools is examined, with emphasis on judicial decisions since the 1988 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier.
Abstract
The Hazelwood decision held that school officials have broad authority to define and supervise student education, including the right to regulate the content of school- sponsored student newspapers. Most judges now read the Hazelwood case as strengthening the authority of public schools toward the ultimate goal of actual autonomy, by limiting children's short-term legal autonomy. Hazelwood distinguishes between tolerance and endorsement and makes clear that requiring schools to tolerate a student's offensive but nondisruptive personal expression differs from the extreme of requiring schools to promote student expression that distorts the existing educational order within the protected sphere of school-sponsored activities. When that happens, a school loses the institutional authority and discretion it must have to carry out its educational mission. This distinction also helps students and the public understand that just because the law requires tolerance of certain conduct, that conduct does not enjoy official endorsement. The Hazelwood decision and the earlier Tinker decision together offer a needed example of constitutional reasoning that has potential applications well beyond the context of student rights. Footnotes