Argumentative Essay: Schools Shouldn’t Be Able to Punish Students for What They Post on the Internet

Everyone has their thoughts on the first amendment, but there’s only one true meaning. The sources I used were “Related Media Exploration: What is free speech?”,  “Tinker v. Des Moines: Freedom of Speech for Students” by Law for Kids, “Free Speech in High School” by  Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), and “A Cheerleader’s Vulgar Message Prompts a First Amendment Showdown” by Adam Liptak. These sources help prove the fact that students shouldn’t be punished for what they post on social media. 

The first reason why schools shouldn’t punish students for what they post on social media is that they have their own life and shouldn’t be punished for something they do off school grounds. The author states, “a school may only restrict their rights if it has a valid and pressing need to prevent violence or serious disruption in the classroom. In this case, the school failed to present any real evidence that wearing black armbands would disrupt education at the school” (Law for Kids 20). This suggests that schools are in students’ personal lives that they can’t even wear armbands without getting questioned about why they are wearing them. The next reason why students shouldn’t get punished is that students can talk about politics and talk negatively and should not get punished because they aren’t threatening anyone or anything. If students go to a public school, the school has to take action if it’s disrupting anything, but students can talk negatively, as long as they are just criticizing people, because that won’t limit their first amendment right to have the freedom of speech, petition, religion, assembly, and press.  (Related Media Exploration: What is Free Speech?) 

The schools don’t need to punish students for posting on social media because they are speaking their minds and as long as they aren’t threatening or disrupting anything or anyone the school has no business punishing them. The author writes, “the Court stated: ‘undifferentiated fear or apprehension of disturbance is not enough to overcome the right to freedom of expression” (FIRE 2). This conveys that even if someone is being a disruption that it isn’t enough to limit people’s first amendment. While reading “Tinker v. Des Moines, Freedom of Speech for Students” by Law for Kids, they stated, “school officials to justify prohibition of a particular expression of opinion, it must be able to show that its action was caused by something more than a mere desire to avoid the discomfort and unpleasantness that always accompanies an unpopular viewpoint”(Law For Kids 16). Implying that even if students negatively say something towards anyone, they shouldn’t be able to punish the students unless it is a threat or it’s disrupting classwork. This underscores how students should have freedom of speech during school. 

On the other hand, some people might argue that students should get punished for what they post on social media. While reading  “A Cheerleader’s Vulgar Message Prompts a First Amendment Showdown,” Liptak stated, “Most courts have allowed public schools to discipline students for social media posts so long as they are linked to school activities and the threat to disrupt them”(11). This demonstrates that students should get punished for making threats or disrupting classwork. To further explain, students can’t just go and start threatening everyone they dislike, just for the fun of it without getting punished. This is proven to be false because schools shouldn’t be punished for what they post on social media. Liptak wrote, “Schools powerless whenever a hateful message is launched from off-campus” (15). This conveys schools can’t punish students for whatever they post on social media off of campus. To clarify, if someone posted something threatening on social media off school grounds, the school shouldn’t be mad at students for what they posted off of campus, because it is their parent’s job to punish them for whatever they post. 

To conclude, schools shouldn’t be able to punish students for what they post on the internet. There are many reasons why students shouldn’t be disciplined for what they post, but one of them is that students can talk negatively and not get punished because they aren’t threatening anyone.