News Release
ACLU "Student Rights in the 21st Century" Panel Marks Constitution Day
Sept. 17 event to feature Mary Beth Tinker, of the landmark "Tinker v. Des Moines" students' rights case.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 16, 2009
CONTACT:
Christopher Ott, Communications Director, 617-482-3170 x322, cott@aclum.org
BOSTON --The American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts is pleased to announce Student Rights in the 21st Century: A Constitution Day Event, to be held at 6pm on September 17, 2009, in the Rabb Lecture Hall of the Boston Public Library. The event is free and open to the public.
Student Rights in the 21st Century:
A Constitution Day Forum with Mary Beth Tinker
Thursday, September 17
6pm - 8pm
Boston Public Library, Copley Square
Rabb Lecture Hall (Boylston entrance)
http://www.aclum.org/events
The event's main speaker, Mary Beth Tinker, was among three public school pupils in Des Moines, Iowa, suspended from school for wearing black armbands to protest the Government's policy in Vietnam. In 1969, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld their right to do so, ruling that the students were not disruptive and did not impinge upon the rights of others.
How significant was this victory? Where are student rights headed today? Tinker will reflect on the action she took, and how student rights have expanded -- and contracted -- over the last 40 years.
"Student Rights in the 21st Century: A Constitution Day Forum " will also feature:
- Winston Cox, principal of Social Justice Academy;
- Boston College Law School professor Mary-Rose Papandrea, an expert on student speech rights in the digital age;
- attorney Jeff Pyle, formerly a high school plaintiff in an ACLU case that gave Massachusetts students the broadest free speech rights in the country;
- students who are standing up today in their schools.
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