First Amendment Week - Freedom of Expression in an Age of Fear

In 1965, 13-year-old Mary Beth Tinker, 15-year-old John Tinker and 16- year-old Christopher Eckhardt were suspended from school for wearing black armbands to protest the Vietnam War. Four years later, the Supreme Court decision that resulted from their lawsuit was a glorious victory for the First Amendment rights of students. Mary Beth and John Tinker will discuss the significance of their historic Supreme Court case in an age in which the Supreme Court's 1988 decision on Hazelwood has limited students' rights in student publications and, even more significantly, in an age where fear has overtaken the cause of freedom.