Recently, the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association imposed a ban on all trash talk at its sporting events. In other words, the league now frowns upon booing, chants such as “air ball”, and other rudimentary, non-offensive phrases. Students have responded with acts of silent rebellion including congregating at a basketball games with neutral clothing and duct tape over their mouths. Some might argue that these games are part of school and the school system has the responsibility to protect the students from the harm that can be caused through childish teasing such as the aforementioned chants. However, most would think that these are simple examples of horseplay and show the children’s competitive spirit. Students should be able to…show more content… It contains five of the most revolutionary ideas the world had heard of at publishing time: the right for the public to say mostly whatever they desire, practice any religion (or no religion) they choose, allow the press to print nearly any story they want, allow the people to congregate and protest anything they want so long as it is peaceful, and petition the government if they so choose. The writing of the Constitution echo loudly, “Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech…” Given the Constitution’s words, the Wisconsin board of athletics is in effect violating one of the most respected documents in the history of the human existence. Further, this is not a part of the school day, (as the Supreme Court has already ruled in many cases including Bethel School District v. Fraser (1986) and Vernonia School District v. Acton (1995) that students have limited rights at school) since some athletics take part in strictly non-educational environments. An even earlier case, Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School District (1969), suggests a test be used to determine if a violation of education is occurring. In this case, there has been no violation of learning, so there should be no wrongdoing occurring in
