Essay on Freedom of Expression

Freedom of expression in the United States is protected by laws incorporated the constitution and the First Amendment. They protect rights to information access, but restrictions have been established on what individuals should talk in public. Censorship is a concept which raises concerns about the freedom of expression and entails the suppression of public communication and speech. The interpretation of essential freedom has changed since enshrinement. The First Amendment safeguards the abilities of educators to put into practice their judgements based on set professional standards. Besides, it also gives latitude to establish compelling learning atmospheres where young individuals gain essential skills and knowledge necessary for becoming self-sufficient, productive, and influential persons in society (Campbell, 2017). This paper will provide insights to parents, administrator, and teachers regarding their respective roles in assisting students in utilizing their freedom of expression appropriately.

In the contemporary world, various individuals struggle each day to access their freedom of expression, primarily to factors associated with their background setting. These factors consist of cultural pressures, discrimination, and poverty. Freedom of expressions in a fundamental right for human being. The idea comes with other fundamental rights which enable individuals to flourish. For instance, freedom of speech allows individuals to air views regarding issues affecting the society, access to the right information, and fight for the development of a healthy community (Donnelly & Whelan, 2018). Free speech is vital for the transformation of society. It involves talking and listening to others. Free societies always entail free ideas and knowledge exchange.

Families are perceived to play a crucial role in the lives of each family member. Students mostly get involved in street protests and demonstrations in the fight against their rights. Students human activists engage the government in what they consider to be rights infringement. Parents have a crucial role in educating their children about their rights as they grow. In addition, they should engage their children who go to school about the importance of knowing what their rights entail to avoid conflicts with law enforcement authorities. I think students should learn more from their family as compared to school. Parents have much experience and a better understanding of their needs. In other times, they might have also passed situations where their rights have been censored. It is most likely that in the United States, in one way or another, whether good or bad, your rights will be censored according to prevailing circumstances. Although the move may be temporary, victims always try to enforce their rights using any means necessary. Therefore, parents are the critical elements in enabling students to understand and correlate past events with the present and whatever situations may come in the future.

Teachers are also important in the lives of the students. Students spend a substantial amount of time in school learning significant aspects of life. In school, students can understand various issues affecting the society, the government structure, and their rights as citizens. Freedom of expression in the school setting allows teachers and students to keep their constitutional rights in school (Scanlon, 2018). Students have rights to address their religious, gender, political, and educations perceptions which does not bring about disruptions in the school. Disruption may include gender and race fights, gang fighting, protesting, religious fights, and students matching out, thereby causing chaos in the school. In an academic setting, educators have rights to censor the freedom of speech for students in a given circumstance. For example, use of abusive words, vulgar language, profanity, clothes associated with gang groups, use of gang signs, and other aspects prohibited by educators, which may cause disruptions, health and safety risk of other students.

The freedom of expression for students cannot be censored without sufficient evidence or its unlikely to cause any disruptions (Oluwole & Green, 2016). In one case, a student wore a t-shirt to school which portrayed George Bush as an “international terrorist.” Although the school banned the shirt from the school environment, the court ruled the act was against the First Amendment and violated the student’s right, as the school did not provide any sufficient evidence of any disruptions caused by the t-shirt.

Teachers and parents are useful in developing a student’s understanding of how they can adequately use the freedom of expression through the use of demonstrations. They act as role models, and typically, students would follow the behaviours of their role models. Teachers and parents should explain to students about their rights to air their views, but such a view should not be offensively expressed to others. Teachers can share various views or opinions with students and express them appropriately for students to learn. For instance, they can simulate how they handle disagreements with school decisions by showing how they should express themselves. This can be achieved by holding board meetings and not imposing such views to their colleagues. Educators can control the expression of students concerning vulgar languages and assist them in correcting the issue. Parents also support them in ways like dressing codes, attending rallies, writing things appropriately, and expressing themselves without appearing disruptive or obscene.

References

Campbell, J. (2017). Natural Rights and the First Amendment. Yale LJ, 127, 246.

Donnelly, J., & Whelan, D. (2018). International human rights.

Oluwole, J., & Green, P. C. (2016). Censorship and student communication in online and offline settings. Information Science Reference.

Scanlon, T. (2018). A Theory of Freedom of Expression 1. In Freedom of Speech (pp. 13-35).