High School Lawsuits

Strangely -- or perhaps appropriately -- it is often those on the fringe of society that lead to some the major developments of a society. In the United States, this has been demonstrated perhaps most prominently by the civil rights and women's suffrage movements. Schools, however, have proven to be some of the most controversial places in the country, and issues of student's rights have often found their way to the Supreme Court. Two such cases with very different results for the rights of students and ultimately the populous at large are New Jersey v. T.L.O. And Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School District. In the first case, a girl caught smoking was then found to have drugs in her possession in a search that was eventually deemed legal, changing the standards of a legal search in educational institutions. In the second case, it was determined that students had the exact same rights in regards to free speech at school as they did anywhere else. Ultimately, it can be seen that the extent to which student rights match those of adult citizens in this nation is largely dependent on the time period and the area of law in question.

Tinker v. De Moines was most definitely an outgrowth of its time, reflecting the public's growing dissatisfaction with the Vietnam War and their increasing demand of the right t voice their dissension. Likewise, New Jersey v. T.L.O. reflects the growing worry over drugs and the general crackdown on what seemed to be a public feeling of entitlement that was occurring throughout the eighties. It is without a doubt that the specific time periods and social mores in which these two cases occurred had a huge impact on the way the cases were decided and the impact they had on student rights. Mostly, however, it was the specific legal circumstances of each case that, though perhaps applied unfairly, determined the Court's decisions. The armbands of the Tinker case could be worn in public without fear; the possession of drugs was illegal anywhere.