hey there and welcome back to heimlich's history in this video we're going to look at another one of your required supreme court cases for the ap government curriculum namely tinker v des moines so if you're ready to get them brain gals milks let's get to it and you know this is a really interesting case for high schoolers because it very much set the parameters for the freedom of speech that you have on school property okay as always let's begin with the facts of the case in 1965 senator robert kennedy called for a christmas truce in the war in vietnam and an activist family called the tinkers decided they wanted to support this controversial measure in symbolic protest to that end four of their children and one of their friends made a plan to wear black armbands to school in support of the christmas truce now to put it mildly the nation was a piping hot mess regarding the vietnam war there were protests and violence and so this was very much not a neutral issue so when the school administration heard about the tinker's plan they went ahead and wrote a policy saying that any student wearing a protest armband to school would be asked to remove it or face suspension until they were willing to come back to school without it and so the tinker children decided to wear the armbands anyway and they got suspended upon which their parents filed suit so what was the constitutional principle at stake this was a case about the first amendment's protection of free speech now remember what i've been saying in all these videos on civil liberties our rights are not absolute there are limits to them and the question here is whether a student protest on school property silent and symbolic as it was concerning a highly contentious issue should be allowed after all school administrators do have the responsibility to create a good learning environment as free from conflict as possible and so was this particular prohibition from the administration a reasonable infringement on the student's right to free speech well to answer the question let's see how the case was decided in a 7-2 decision the court ruled that this was a violation of the student's right to free speech and while the court acknowledged that there were valid constitutional reasons for an administration to restrict the speech of students on some occasions this case did not meet the criteria in fact the court created what's called the substantial disruption test as a decision-making criterion for how school administrators could constitutionally limit student speech basically it just says that if a school administration is going to restrict student speech they must be able to demonstrate that the speech in question would quote materially and substantially interfere with the requirements of appropriate discipline in the operation of the school and since the wearing of these armbands caused no material or substantial disruption it was deemed a violation of the student's first amendment rights that's because as justice abe ford has stated in the majority opinion it can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate okay now why does this case matter it matters because it set the parameters for the question of free speech on school campuses and has been cited in many other similar cases to guide justices in their ruling before you decide to just go say anything you want at school thinking tinker will protect you i should mention that subsequent cases have refined the relationship between students free speech and the school administration's responsibility to create a conflict-free learning environment for example in 1985 a case called bethel school district v frazier took up the question about obscene and vulgar speech at school in this case a student gave a speech that was overflowing with sexual innuendos and was disciplined as a result so in this case the court decided that vulgar speech on a school campus was not the same as political speech like the students in the tinker case had engaged in and so they ruled in favor of the administration in that case and thus decided that there are legitimate restrictions on student speech okay that's what you need to know about tinker v des moines click right here to grab review packet if you need help getting an a in your class and a five on your exam in may hey if you want me to keep making these videos and express your right to symbolic speech by clicking that subscribe button and i shall oblige heimler out