School can be one of the worst places in terms of freedom for young people – whether that is due to not being able to choose your own education, or not being able to express yourself, or having a higher chance of being arrested for “being disruptive.” In 1967, the US Supreme Court famously proclaimed that “constitutional rights do not stop at the schoolhouse gate,” meaning that young people in school can expect to have the same rights in school as they do outside of it. Unfortunately, over the years, we have seen Constitutional rights become severely weakened in educational institutions with many fundamental rights considered optional or irrelevant. We believe that ageism is the primary factor in the reason why students’ rights are so often curtailed. We also believe that the best way to learn about rights granted by our society and government is to learn them in an environment that emulates and respects these rights, not one that disregards them by claiming that young people can’t understand them. Students have the right to receive an education in an environment that respects them as full members of society.
