Upcoming forum focuses on student free expression rights

Mary Beth Tinker, the student suspended for wearing an armband to class to protest the Vietnam War, will speak about student free expression rights at 7:30 p.m. March 11 in a forum at Webster University’s Winifred Moore Auditorium.

Tinker’s suspension became the basis for a lawsuit that went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which decided that student free expression rights do not stop at the classroom door. The logic expressed by the 1969 U.S. Supreme Court did not sway a later court in 1988, which curbed student free expression rights with its Hazlewood decision.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Hazelwood case, which originated in St. Louis.

Tinker will be accompanied by a panel of experts on First Amendment law, and they will discuss the impact of the Tinker and Hazelwood decisions.

The event, which is free and open to the public, is co-sponsored by the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), Gateway Journalism Review/St. Louis Journalism Review, Gateway Media Literacy Partners and the St. Louis Media History Foundation.