Lois Cote

NOTE' SAME AS TESTIMONY OPPOSING HB 1345 Are you not concerned that this bill is in violation of the First Amendment rights of students? For example, what if students in a Current Events class on the war in Ukraine wanted to display the Ukrainian flag in their classroom, to express empathy and solidarity with that country's struggle to remain a free and sovereign democratic nation? HB 1345 SEEMS TO SEEK TO REPRESS FREE EXPRESSION OF THOUGHT. If you read the second paragraph below, perhaps you may conclude that what this bill does is "invade the [FIRST AMENDMENT] rights of others". = from LEGAL CLARITY, Education Law "The Foundation of Minors’ Free Speech Rights The legal basis for students’ free speech rights in public schools was established by the Supreme Court in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (1969). The case involved students suspended for wearing black armbands to protest the Vietnam War, leading the Court to declare that students do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.” The Tinker ruling established that student expression is protected unless school officials can prove it would “materially and substantially interfere” with the school’s operation. Administrators cannot censor speech simply because they dislike its message; they must have concrete evidence that it will cause a significant disruption or invade the rights of others. The Court found no such evidence regarding the armbands, making the school’s actions unconstitutional."