Students' constitutional freedom of speech on the example of homosexuality debate in the U.S. case law

Abstract

The paper deals with freedom of speech as applied to students of respectively high schools and colleges or universities. One of the most controversial examples of student expression is speech on homosexuality. Issues of the morality of homosexual orientation or same-sex acts raise great tensions and animosities. The article is an attempt to delimitate protected boundaries of student speech by the study of U.S. federal courts’ opinions. Case law in relating to the title public debate issue reveals inconsistency. Courts have reached conflicting conclusions about school authority's permissibility of banning anti-homosexual students’ harmful remarks such as “Homosexuality is shameful”. Supreme Court precedent, dating back to 1969, stating that schools can restrict student speech only if it “materially and substantially interferes with the requirements of appropriate discipline in the operation of the school” or “collides with the rights of others” has lost its clarification and instructional dimension. Judicial balancing of the legitimate safety concerns and need for school discipline against the First Amendment values is now a highly unpredictable process.