What PA students should know about their right to protest

Added: 2026-05-20

[00:00:00]Hey Pennsylvania public school students, are you thinking about protesting ICE?

[00:00:04]Before you design your signs or organize a school walkout, let's make sure you know your 1A rights first. Students have been protesting for decades. From demonstrations over apartheid in South Africa, walkouts supporting the Black Lives Matter movement, to protests following school shootings. Back in 1969, the Supreme Court ruled that neither students nor teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of expression or speech at the school house gates. In that case, students at a public school in Des Moines, Iowa decided to wear black armbands to silently protest the Vietnam War.

[00:00:39]The principal suspended those students for doing so, arguing that it could potentially disrupt the learning environment. Parents sued and ultimately won. The court ruled that school officials could not prohibit speech purely on the suspicion that it might disrupt the learning environment. That decision protects your right to speak out, write articles, form groups, hand out flyers, and petition school officials.

[00:01:06]But certain forms of expression can be limited, like speech that substantially disrupts the school environment, violates the rights of others, or is lewd or vulgar. Those limitations are determined on a case-by-case basis, but experts at the Education Law Center in Pennsylvania say it can't be determined based off of mere speculation, fear, or concern that it's a controversial topic.

[00:01:30]But civil disobedience can come at a cost.

[00:01:33]If you walk out of school without permission, you can be disciplined under content-neutral rules. That means the punishment must be the same as you would receive for walking out of school for any other reason. So if you're a student considering protesting, keep all of this in mind, cuz at the end of the day, democracy does not come free.

[00:01:59]>> Mhm.