It’s not often that we learn about a moment in history from the people who played an important role.
That’s exactly the opportunity Thursday for a class of civics students at Milford High School.
In 1965, 15-year-old John Tinker was among a group of students in Des Moines, Iowa, who wore black armbands to school to protest the rising death toll in the Vietnam War. The American Civil Liberties Union took up the cause as a First Amendment fight, and the case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where the justices ruled 7-2 in favor of the children in 1969. .
“There is little objection to students and teachers relinquishing their constitutional rights to freedom of speech and expression at the schoolhouse gates,” wrote then-Justice Abe Fortas.
It has since become known as the Tinker standard.
The case continues to resonate, particularly in New Hampshire, where disputes over protest wristbands and the First Amendment have been brought to federal court.
John Tinker attended We the People’s civics class at Milford High School on Thursday from his home in Fayette, Missouri, to share his story. He was invited by Dave Alcox, a social studies teacher who taught classes at MHS for 22 years and is now retired, and still visits frequently.
One of Mr. Alcox’s former students, Tom Landstedt, now teaches a “We the People” class based on the Civic Education Center’s curriculum, which explores the Constitution and the rights and responsibilities of citizens.
Rundstedt said students in the class learn to consider all sides of an issue. “They understand there’s not just one right answer,” he said. And by putting the Constitution at the core of the class, “their discussions become really meaningful.”
Tinker told the class that the black armband he was wearing at the time was not intended as a political statement. It’s a symbol of remembrance, he told the students, who watched intently as he spoke. “For us, it was a symbol of our grief over the killing,” he said.
Fifty-five years after the high school protest case reached the U.S. Supreme Court, John Tinker is now the director of the John F. Tinker Foundation, which focuses on protecting First Amendment rights in public schools. I am the chairman.
John F. Tinker Foundation
The day Tinker was kicked out of school, he told Milford students that he had a long and “very polite” discussion with the principal. “He was a military man, and he thought I didn’t understand the need for people to support the government during wartime,” he recalled. “He thought maybe I was listening to the wrong person.”
The son of a Methodist minister, Tinker tried to convince adults that his actions were based on principle. Finally, the principal tells Tinker that he can take off his armband and return to class as if nothing had happened.
“But I don’t think you’re going to take it off, are you?” the principal asked the 15-year-old boy. “No, it’s not,” Tinker replied.
“Years later, I think back to that time,” Tinker told the students. “I realized that he respected me. He saw me as a person with a conscience and that I was doing what I felt needed to be done.”
When Tinker returned to school after Christmas break that year, he stopped wearing the armband. But he said, “I wore all black for the rest of the semester, and everyone at the school knew what black meant.”
“It was interesting to me that by suppressing the expression of an idea, you can’t actually suppress the idea, because the idea will find another way,” he said.
After Tinker told his story, the Milford teens asked him thoughtful questions.
Does he believe today’s Supreme Court does enough to protect free speech? (yes.)
Did he ever regret what he did? (no.)
However, Tinker said he regrets oversleeping and missing his flight on the day of the Supreme Court hearing. “By the time I got to Washington, D.C., it was all over,” he said. “That’s a shame.”
Has his daily life changed significantly since the court’s decision?
Not right now. It took decades for this case to be recognized as a landmark First Amendment case regarding student rights.
But the experience changed his perspective. “By the time I was 19 or 20, I was litigating cases before the U.S. Supreme Court,” he said. “You can go to the library and look yourself up.”
And it gave him the freedom to “follow the world,” he told the students. “I wanted to be a human on Earth.”
In the decades following the trial, his life took a “different path.” He lived in a 1941 delivery van for five years, driving city buses, collecting scrap metal, traveling, and learning computer programming. Fifty years after the Supreme Court decision, he lent his name to a foundation that supports the First Amendment rights of students and teachers.
Tinker never lost his passion for social justice and pacifism. The day he attended the “We the People” class, he wore a black armband on the sleeve of his plaid shirt in protest of the war in Gaza.
To conclude the deal, Tinker had one final piece of advice for soon-to-be adults. “It’s time for the world to take notice,” he said. “Pay attention to what’s going on.”
Protesters wearing pink wristbands
Class discussion then turned to an issue reminiscent of an old case currently being argued in federal court in New Hampshire.
In July, Gov. Chris Sununu signed legislation requiring student-athletes in grades 5 through 12 to play on the team that matches the gender listed on their birth certificate. Two students challenged the law in federal court, and a judge temporarily blocked enforcement of the law.
Last month, a group of parents watching a women’s soccer match in Bow wore pink wristbands marked with an “XX,” representing female chromosomes, in protest of allowing transgender players to play on women’s teams. He was wearing a . In that game, a player on the opposing team was a transgender girl. The parents were told to leave the school grounds and barred from attending subsequent games, and they also filed a lawsuit in federal court.
Both sides cited the Tinker case in their arguments. For now, a federal judge has ruled that parents can attend upcoming games and events as long as they don’t wear wristbands or hold up signs. The case is scheduled to go to trial in late November.
Some students at Milford College felt strongly that parents had the same right to express their ideas as they did, but it was destructive and targeted at individual students. Some people said it was.
Anthony Lopez-Ortiz said he’s had to deal with more venom directed at athletes during basketball games. “We have to get through it,” he said. “These parents were quiet. They weren’t screaming.”
Kayleigh Van Blarigan said silent protests are destructive. “It was clearly a direct threat to the individual they were targeting,” she said.
“This is not about crowd disruption, this is about students being directly targeted by other parents,” Jason Sebasco said.
Senior Gabe Santaniello said the court “needs to consider these cases very carefully.” And he cited the Tinker Standard, saying, “Students and teachers do not waive their constitutional rights at the school gate.”
“Good for you!” said a delighted Dave Alcox. “Props!”
“Nursery school of democracy”
This type of passionate, informed discussion is the epitome of New Hampshire civics education at its best.
Rundstedt told the students that in court cases since the Tinker decision, the Supreme Court has continued to protect students’ right to free expression.
Justice Stephen Breyer once called America’s public schools “the nursery school of democracy,” telling his students: What does that mean? he asked.
“Our Constitution enshrines many rights, and those rights are protected in our schools,” said Josiah Cherries. It “fosters democracy,” he said.
He noted that some students at Milford High School walked out of class last year over the new bathroom policy. Their actions led to a compromise on this issue.
“We protested. It was our right,” Cherries said. “The school supported us.”
After the class, Lundstedt said civics instruction is essential “if you want to graduate as an educated citizen.”
As Americans, he said, “we have different beliefs, but we have a set of common ideas that we think are important. We believe that rights are important; that equality is important; And I agree that the democratic process is important.”
“We may disagree on what that looks like, but I think we need to have common values,” he said.
