We have been discussing the rapid erosion of free speech on our campuses. That trend started a long time ago in our high schools where officials have steadily attacked the exercise of free speech by teenagers. Few however have reached the level of censorship and content-based punishment as Revere High School in Massachusetts. Cheerleader Caley Godino has been banned from her team because she tweeted political comments that her teachers did not like about illegal immigration.
The day after the municipal elections Godino was on a field trip outside of the school when her Civics teacher sent out a tweet about low voter turnout in the elections that noted that only ten percent of the population voted. Godson dashed off a response saying “10 percent of Revere voted because the others are not legal.”
The school Administration promptly put her on probation. Superintendent Dianne Kelly insisted that she is supportive of free speech but only up to a point: “If you’re going to stand up and say something that other people will find offensive or hateful, then you need to be prepared to deal with the ramifications of that.” Well, yes, but the “ramifications” are usually more speech — part of a healthy dialogue in a free society. Godino received an overwhelming response from critics. However, Kelly and her staff wanted to silence her voice and punish her exercise of free speech. This seems quite afield from the standard under Tinker v. Des Moines Indep. Comm. Sch. Distr. (1969) of punishing those acts that “materially and substantially interfere with the requirements of appropriate discipline in the operation of the school.”
I have previously written about the increasing monitoring and discipline of teachers for conduct in their private lives. We have seen teachers face discipline over social media pictures holding a weapon. Even a picture of a teacher holding a glass of a drink is enough to trigger discipline. We have seen a steady erosion of the free speech rights of students in the last decade. The Supreme Court accelerated that trend in its Morse decision. Former JDHS Principal Deb Morse suspended a student in 2002 during the Olympic Torch Relay for holding up a 14-foot banner across from the high school that read “Bong Hits 4 Jesus.” The case ultimately led to the Supreme Court which ruled in Morse v. Frederick ruling in 2007 for the Board — a decision that I strongly disagreed with and one that has encouraged over-reaching by school officials into protected areas.
For a copy of the Morse decision, click here.
There is much to disagree with in this tweet but we often decry how high school students are not engaged in public debates and issues. This one has a controversial opinion but, instead of challenging the opinion, the school sought to punish the speaker. In this case, a civics teacher raised voting issues (with what turned out to be an incorrect statistics by the way) and a student engaged in the debate. Illegal immigration is a subject that has divided the country and is now a major subject of debate in the presidential elections. It is a troubling lesson for these students who will be the next generation of voters. Our schools are teaching this generation to yield to arbitrary and unchallengeable authority. The reason is that, even when such draconian decisions are rescinded, no teacher or administrator is ever punished for abusing students in this fashion. Kelly is not teaching a lesson of tolerance but intolerance to the student body. It is highly unlikely that the opposing view on immigration would be sanctioned in this way. The result is a content-based punishment of speech made by a student on social media.
I could understand Kelly calling in the parents and the student to express concern over the use of a school tweet to convey views that might be viewed as hurtful to students from undocumented families. However, to actually punish a student for a political statement on social media raises very serious free speech concern in my view.
What do you think?
“. . . hurtful to students from undocumented families”?!? It’s easy for the rich elite in this country who do not have to deal with illegal aliens in their everyday lives to criticize ordinary citizens who do have to put up with them, which is a particularly noticable and objectionable trait in politicians these days. And “educators” who use their powers to force their political opinions on their students are even worse and should be fired for such actions. Pretty soon their “no-free speech” polcies will include not being able to say anything bad about any sort of criminal. “You might be saying something hurtful to students who have a parent in prison for burglary or armed robbery.” Hurt their feelings? This is an attack on the moral and ethical standards of the American society at large. Yes, people should tolerate and accept those around them who simply have different customs and preferences, but accepting the unacceptable — allowing criminal behavior by looking the other way or saying outright that it doesn’t matter — will ultimately help lead to the destruction of the country. Get over this idea. It’s what has caused all the corruption and incompetence so prevalent in government and education today, and just letting it continue will only cause it to get worse. If a teacher doesn’t like a legitimate opinion expressed by a student, then he or she should state their own opposing opinion, or better yet, use it to start a constructive discussion among all the students that will promote their learning how to think and form their own independent ideas and opinions.
She should build a clock in a suitcase and bring it to school.
I believe the Superintendent, Civics Teacher and the schools Debate Coach should get together and take another look at this. The Civics teacher opens up a discussion and receives a response challenging the teacher’s facts with her own “facts”. This is the perfect opportunity to teach and what lesson did Kelly decide to teach instead? Free speech does not include dissent. This is certainly NOT the way to inspire students to learn nor citizens to participate in the democratic process.
Superintendent Kelly is indulging her baser instincts at the expense of both education and civics.
Not much of an educator and certainly a bully.
Antonio, Welcome. I hope you stick around. I know Hispanic immigrants who came here legally who think and feel the same as you. As you know, there are more than the liberal fascists would ever believe.
This tweet touches the top 2 issues Trump has capitalized on, PC and illegal immigration. The ignorant, fascist, Education Industry is fueling Trump’s campaign.
Our schools are a disgrace. This kind of nonsense is one of the reasons.
who gives a rat’s ass if someone from an “undocumented family” is hurt? maybe they would hurt enough to go home. that would be nice…
I told my daughter to always say “yes” to anything a teacher wanted or said. It is the secret to success in school. Sad but true. Also, parents should never confront a teacher because of poor performance on his/ her part. The student is always at fault. Mind you, I think it is terrible, but if you want to get out of the system unscathed, it is the way to go.
Maybe Godino could tweet Donald Trump for help. Superintendent Kelly is a bully and should meet a real bully.
Kelly, Kelly, bo belly.
Bananna fanna so smelly!
Fee fi fo melie.
Kelly!
Revere High School. It is probably named after Paul Revere. Someone needs to tweet the students there a warning: The Irish Are Coming! And another warning about what its like when they do come. No pun intended.
The school Principal (who is no “pal”) needs to be subjected to watching the entire movie called Blazing Saddles. The Principal is named Kelly. That is Irish if I am not mistaken. In the movie there is a scene where the small town out in the Wild West is about to be under siege by some outlaws and the town is preparing defenses. A townsman moves for the Mayor to accept some Freedmen to move into town as citizens and they too would help fight the outlaws. And the Mayor responds with a reluctant yes and then ends with: But Not The Irish!
Had the Irish not been allowed in we would not have this Nazi school Principal and the story would be different. The Principal needs to be demoted to cleaning the bathrooms. She is already a Principal so we know she is not fit to teach. (Those who can’t teach: Teach teachers.) And, about the only thing she is fit to do is clean bathrooms and outhouses.
It used to be said that the response to offensive speech should be more speech. I’m thinking that the new response will need to be more lawsuits. Law schools should establish classes in free speech litigation to train a new generation of lawyers in defending first amendment rights. “First Amendment Clinics” at law schools could provide students with real world experience. Until these school administrators feel the sting of litigation, they will have no incentive to respect the rights of their students to engage in public debate. There are a number of law schools in Mass; it would send an unmistakable message if one of them stepped up to challenge this action.
This is what will happen to the citizenry if the left is given carte blanche to run the United States. The free speech rights of those under 18 is restricted severely. They are taken advantage of and subjected to draconian levels of censorship because the powers to be are able to do so. It is important that just because the school administrators can censor speech, it does not mean the must censor speech. Nevertheless the left’s penchant toward restricting free speech it deems objectionable, as our host wrote about a poll showing democrats were twice as likely to support censorship of this kind of speech, means that we are going to see this injection of politics as being the deciding factor on what is approved speech. Anything other than the platform of the powers to be gets rejected. And couple this with the increasing zero-tolerance approach of schools, punishment will be wielded liberally.
I think the teacher was wrong to tweet something she did not want a response to and wrong to take offense at a possibly accurate response. This one is on the teacher and the administration.
“this teacher posted something on social media which invites people to respond regardless of their political bent, and this student did just that. She was invited to respond.”
I think I agree. The teacher made a statement that raises many questions, in particular, ‘why are citizens not voting and what should be done. It seems to me that within a very broad range the teacher should have engaged in reasoned discussion regarding the student’s comments and questions.
This is outrageous. Teachers are supposed to be educating not censoring. I think some administrator needs to be fired for offensive conduct!
Politics follows culture, not the other way around. That being said, I predict that within the next 10 years there will be a major party’s presidential candidate calling for hate speech exceptions to the First Amendment.
On another note (brace yourself liberals!), I am a proud Hispanic and do not support illegal immigrants or immigration (sorry, I meant “undocumented persons”). I love telling libs this and watching them go into convulsions. They really want believe their own propaganda on how persons such as myself are supposed to think.
find a new school
what the school did was very hurtful to this particular young lady and by singling her out caused her great embarrassment.
the student herself didn’t pick on just one student by name – she made a general statement. Right or wrong, agree or disagree, make an argument, not wield your powers; which is exactly what this teacher did. she is a coward and as a civics teacher she knows nothing of debate or making an argument.
this teacher posted something on social media which invites people to respond regardless of their political bent, and this student did just that. She was invited to respond.
If the teacher doesn’t want to hear certain words she has the option to make her tweets private.
If she didn’t like the student’s comment she could have blocked her with one click, no one would be the wiser.
the teacher it seems wants a master slave relationship with her students.
If she doesn’t like what they say she punishes them. If any other stranger responded in kind the teacher would have probably blocked that person from responding to future tweets.
the parents of this student should demand an apology from the teacher and administration, and she should still find a new school.