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Presented by Lauren Connerley and Brynne Baird
Matthew Fraser, a senior at Bethel High School, gave a speech during an assembly to nominate his classmate into office of the student government. The speech was full of sexual references, but no obscenities.
After Fraser's father filed a lawsuit, it went to two different courts. Both of these courts agreed with the Fraser Family.
The Federal District Court agreed with the Fraser family. The court granted Fraser monetary damages and ordered the school board to not prevent him from speaking at graduation.
The school appealed this case to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The court affirmed the lower court's ruling. This court said that this case was no different than the Tinker V. Des Moines Independent Community School District case from 1969. They didn't think that the school had the authority to take control of the speech during the event.
On March 3rd, 1986 this case was argued in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. The court upheld the school board's decision. It had a 7-2 margin. Chief Justice Burger wrote for the majority. He pointed out there was a huge difference between this case and the Tinker case because that dealt with public policy of the time. Burger said that students in a public school aren't allowed to talk in sexual ways like that, but adults can. There are certain limits of censory in schools.
Today the rules are the same. Students can get in trouble when they talk inappropriately in class or during school events. A student can not use vulgar language at anything that involves school.
There were some other cases that were brought up during the trial because they closely related to what was happening in this case.
This case is from 1969 and it said that school officials couldn't discipline students for wearing black armbands to protest the Vietnam War solely based on the fear that it would cause a disruption. This was a political problem of the time.
School officials had the right to censor the school newspaper if they wanted to because it is the school's. It was a public one therefore the could limit the freedom of speech.