Warren Harding Junior High School and Tinker vs. Des Moines
Introduction
Text-to-speech Audio
Warren Harding Junior High School (Harding Middle School today) saw a student protest against the Vietnam War lead to a landmark Supreme Court case in 1965. In response to the escalation of the war, and in support Senator Robert Kennedy's proposed Christmas Truce, a group of Des Moines students wore black arm bands to school. The administration decided that the students would either have to remove these armbands or face suspension. Mary Beth Tinker, Christopher Eckhardt, and John Tinker believed that the administration's new policy was tantamount to censorship. After they wore the armbands at school once again, each of the students were suspended. With the support of their parents and the ACLU, the students protested the school board's actions in a case that was eventually heard by the Supreme Court.
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Backstory and Context
Text-to-speech Audio
In March of that year, the Iowa Civil Liberties Union filed a complaint to the US District Court of the Southern District of Iowa on behalf of Christopher Eckhardt and the Tinkers. This complaint claimed that by suspending the students the Des Moines Public Schools had violated their rights under the First Amendment, which protects the right to free expression. The district court dismissed the complaint on the grounds that this suspension was within the school board’s power, as the students’ act of protest was claimed to disturb learning in the schools. The justices at the US Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit were split, which means that the District Court’s ruling was upheld.
The case went to the Supreme Court in November of 1968,
where it was decided in February of 1969 that the Des Moines School District
had, in fact, violated the right granted the students under the First
Amendment. Today, Mary Beth Tinker is a youth rights activist. In the fall of
2013, Tinker completed a speaking tour with student rights attorney Mike
Hiestand. During this tour, they traveled in the United States, across the east
coast, Midwest, and southeast speaking at colleges, churches, one youth
detention facility, courts, and national conventions.