In every school, students should have the right to protest and share their opinions. It’s their school, so if they don’t like something they should be able to speak up and be heard. It would be wrong if they were not allowed to.

The idea of students exercising their rights to free speech is nothing new. In 1965, a Des Moines Independent School District in Iowa, three kids were just trying to have their voices heard at their school by wearing black armbands to protest the Vietnam War but the school did not appreciate this protest. The school administrators demanded that the students remove the arm bands and when they refused they were suspended.

This incident was taken to the Supreme Court in 1969, and the students won. The court didn’t grant students with the rights to unlimited self-expression due to the balance that must be kept in schools between the First Amendment rights and keeping order in schools. But as long as an act of expression does not disrupt class work or school activities, it’s acceptable.

According to the New York Times article published on September 8, 2008 titled “10 Supreme Court Cases Every Teen Should Know”, the court stated during the trial, “Students and teachers don’t shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.”

When tragedy struck Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14, 2018, where 17 people lost their lives in a school shooting, it triggered a national reaction. Students across America walked out of class in protest for stricter gun laws, but this wouldn’t have been possible without the Tinker court case that set the standard  for students’ freedom of expression of opinion.

According to an article published by CNN on March 14, 2018 called A Generation Raised On Gun Violence Sends a Loud Message To Adults: Enough, “thousands of students across the United States walked out of class Wednesday to demand stricter gun laws in a historic show of political solidarity that was part tribute and part protest.”

In West Jordan, Utah students are protesting their schools dress codes lead by 10th grader Alyssa Troyo, who says, “They’re saying that we cannot be wearing tank tops because it’s distracting for the guys and by saying that they’re kind of sexualizing our bodies and portraying them as objects. So, we’re saying, not an object, not a distraction.”

Students at West Jordan High school are wearing stickers that read “not an object, not a distraction,” to school and administration is taking action to help the students come up with a solution to their concerns. They are allowed to wear these stickers in protest because of the Tinker case that reinforced the ideas of students rights of self expression. The administration at West Jordan High listened and valued the students for addressing a problem and plan to compromise to make dress codes appropriate for school but not sexist.

Some people argue that students standing up and protesting only causes more problems with no solutions or even chaos but I disagree with that. I believe protesting what you believe in gets the school’s attention enough so they see how important it is to make a change, just like at West Jordan High school. Schools are teaching students to be the next leaders, CEOs, senators, and engineers. How are we supposed to be successful if we keep being denied our First Amendment rights and are not allowed to be heard? Change can only happen if we make it happen, so speak up!