A small community in southwest Michigan has been witness to a significant cultural divide within its school system. An influential church has permeated school leadership and in many cases has overstepped the proverbial "wall separating church and state." A fairly high-profile case saw the Sixth Circuit Court enjoin the district to remove…

Music with sacred texts is integral to the historical and modern development of the music education field, yet many who teach in public schools find themselves limited or banned from using sacred music. School divisions do not have a consensus opinion on how to handle this sensitive topic, and the law is not explicit. In this article, I provide an…

The First Amendment does not protect a bully when it comes to vulgar or intimidating language. When the language or behavior interferes with another student's educational opportunities--whether it is done inside or outside of school--it is not protected by freedom of speech or expression, and it should be addressed by school officials.…

This article reviews some of the First Amendment issues that school boards and their legal counsel often encounter during a school board meeting. The discussion necessarily begins with a brief review of the public forum doctrine, under which is included the traditional public forum, the designated public forum, and the nonpublic forum. The article…

John Tinker and Mary Beth Tinker are back in a classroom in their hometown, once again wearing black armbands and drawing attention to a war. Now in their 50s, the siblings are living symbols of constitutional rights for secondary school students. In 1965, they and a handful of others were suspended for wearing black armbands to their public…

Several years ago, Macomb Community College suspended an English teacher for three days because he frequently used profanity in the classroom that was not germane to course subject matter. The teacher's response to this suspension and the administration's response to his actions prompted a series of countermeasures by each party, and culminated in…

In 1989, some Springfield, Missouri residents demanded cancellation of the Southwest Missouri State University (SMSU) theater department's production of Larry Kramer's play, "The Normal Heart," which they alleged to be obscene. Opponents purchased newspaper advertisements which charged that the publicly funded production promoted a…