While I applaud the Register for examining the First Amendment effects of proposed anti-bullying legislation, the recent editorial significantly misstates student speech rights. The editorial ("Schools' Anti-Bullying Legislation Goes Too Far," April 3) said that "Since ... Tinker vs. Des Moines Schools, it has been a bedrock of constitutional law that students have the same First Amendment rights of free speech as adults in schools."
This is a gross oversimplification of Tinker. The court in Tinker said that students do not "shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate," but it left the door open for schools to regulate student speech that "materially and substantially interfere[s] with the requirements of appropriate discipline in the operation of the school."
That is to say, although students in school do have some free speech protection, the court's ruling in Tinker allowed schools to restrict student speech if it was legitimately necessary to maintaining school discipline. As it pertains to the anti-bullying legislation, there are still significant legal questions about whether schools may regulate student speech off campus and after school hours, especially in the context of social networking and the Internet, but students certainly do not have the same free speech rights as adults in schools.
-John Trippi, Iowa City, University of Iowa College of Law student