**** salute in school

[tranquility]

Really??

A student does it in school and gets discipllined...

An adult does it in the workplace and gets fired...

While your point is valid, the legal principle is not. A school is the government while the workplace is not. (Even if the workplace happens to be with a government agency.)

 

[ecmst12]

OP wasn't arrested, he was (rightfully) disciplined by his school. Just because it's a public school does not mean it's a legal/government agency. And besides, this was not a political statement, it was a "joke" or more truthfully, an act of harassment/bullying, which is not protected.

 

[tranquility]

Just because it's a public school does not mean it's a legal/government agency.

Yes, it does.

And besides, this was not a political statement, it was a "joke" or more truthfully, an act of harassment/bullying, which is not protected.

Maybe. While I accept and agree the school did not act illegally here, a student does not completely lose his first amendment rights at the schoolhouse doors.

 

[Zigner]

Yes, it does.

Maybe. While I accept and agree the school did not act illegally here, a student does not completely lose his first amendment rights at the schoolhouse doors.

A student doesn't have a "right" to hate speech.

 

[tranquility]

A student doesn't have a "right" to hate speech.

Well, he kinda does, depending on what you mean by hate speech and if this would apply. See:
RAV v. St. Paul, 505 US 377

Where the dissent said:

Any contribution of this holding to First Amendment jurisprudence is surely a negative one, since it necessarily signals that expressions of violence, such as the message of intimidation and racial hatred conveyed by burning a cross on someone's lawn, are of sufficient value to outweigh the social interest in order and morality that has traditionally placed such fighting words outside the First Amendment.[4] Indeed, by characterizing fighting words as a form of "debate," ante, at 392, the majority legitimates hate speech as a form of public discussion.

403*403 Furthermore, the Court obscures the line between speech that could be regulated freely on the basis of content (i. e., the narrow categories of expression falling outside the First Amendment) and that which could be regulated on the basis of content only upon a showing of a compelling state interest (i. e., all remaining expression). By placing fighting words, which the Court has long held to be valueless, on at least equal constitutional footing with political discourse and other forms of speech that we have deemed to have the greatest social value, the majority devalues the latter category. See Burson v. Freeman, supra, at 196; Eu v. San Francisco Cty. Democratic Central Comm., 489 U. S. 214, 222-223 (1989).

But, I agree this "speech" could be prohibited on other grounds because of the school yard. (Morse v. Frederick, 551 U.S. 393) I'll also end here as first amendment issues can rarely be discussed profitably in small bits.

 

[davew128]

A student doesn't have a "right" to hate speech.

Regardless of what you would reasonably think of what the kid did, I don't think you could consider hate speech. Regardless as Tranq pointed out, in the United States, hate speech is not illegal like it is in Canada and if it were, a lot of people would be in jail, mostly from moveon.org and Huffpo.

 

[Just Blue]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Miami, Florida
I go to a public school part of Miami Dade County Schools. On Wednesday (10/10/12) during lunch I went into the cafeteria and did the **** salute while walking past a couple of German foreign exchange students. I don't support Hitler or what he did, I did it as a joke (I have a dark sense of humor). I didn't go to school on Thursday (doctor's appointment). Now today they tell me that I have received a referral. Normally I wouldn't be troubled by a referral but it's my senior year and I'm running for homecoming king. According to the school's policy if you get a referral you will be taken out of the race so today they informed me that I've been taken out of the homecoming race. Can they give me a referral for this? Is there anyway I can fight this?

Yes. You can get a referral". Yes. You can be taken out of the HCK. Yes...What you did was not only rude to the GFES but to the memory of the millions of murdered peoples of Europe. Dark Humor? Do you also tell "dead baby" jokes to mother/father/siblings of murdered children?