This is the main facts that I pulled from a paper I recently wrote for Communication Law and Policy at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

1. Regulating Student First Amendment
Speech Rights:
Public School Free Expression in 2019
By: Brooke Wegner

2. Brief History
• Free Expression in public schools offer greater legal freedom than
most private institutions
• Goodman states, “Students in schools are not prisons, but the
challenge to their free speech and the confusion over the legal
protections to which they are entitles are frequently disturbingly
similar”

3. Recent Law Case
• Kountze Independent School District v. Matthews, 2017
• Cheerleaders were displaying bible verses on the runout banner at a high
school football game
• School districts plea was denied because the cheerleaders speech on the
banner was private Speech which was protected by the First Amendment
• Bell v. Itawamba, 2015
• Bell made a rap song that was about the school and coaches at the school
• Court ruled in schools favor and Bell was sent to boarding school

4. Law Review Analyses
• O’Neal v. Falcon
• Professor made false and malicious statements about the plaintiff in class
• Student turned in assignment an the professor publicly called her out for
what she wrote and how it was wrong
• Teachers responsibility to be positive in class and make the kids want to
express their personal beliefs
• Tomain
• Targets the online speech of student which is offensive and related to school
• Since the students are not on school grounds, they think they are okay with
saying things publicly but they aren’t

5. First Amendment or Statue Law Conclusions
• Government Speech
• Key inquiry is the degree of governmental control over the message
• School-sponsored Speech
• School-sponsored speech is a category of speech devised for the distractive
context of the public schools
• Private Speech
• Constitutional standard to apply to private speech is to identify the nature of
the forum in question

6. Overall Conclusion
• First speech isn’t always in affect where you are and under what
circumstances you are saying things as
• A person has to be careful on who they involve and where they put
the beliefs and statements