People have varying opinions regarding the rights they have in school that are guaranteed by the First Amendment.

The First Amendment states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

Sophomore Gabby Taliaferro said only freedom of speech is suppressed.

“The only issue at school is freedom of speech,” Taliaferro said. “You can’t exactly say whatever you want.”

Sophomore Christopher Wisniski said freedom of religion and speech are suppressed in school.

“Religion is not allowed in public schools,” Wisniski said. “You have the freedom to speak your mind, but you can’t curse or anything like that.”

Freshman Shayde McGinnis, on the other hand, said every right is offered during school.

“I feel like we have all of the rights at school,” McGinnis said.

Taliaferro said absolute freedom of speech would be good to have.

“You need words to express certain feelings, and there’s certain words you can’t use while you’re here,” Taliaferro said.

Wisniski thinks students should have every right to their full extent.

“As an American, it’s your right to have those rights,” Wisniski said. “However, it is the general will of people that you lose those kinds of rights for school.”

McGinnis, however, said students should be controlled.

“You just don’t want people to think they can do everything they want,” McGinnis said. “They have to have a limit.”

Students do think these rights should be curbed, to an extent.

“Some kids aren’t taught not to say bad things,” Taliaferro said. “If we had all the rights, it would probably be chaos because everyone doing what they want when they want would be bad.”

McGinnis also said that school would be worse off.

“There would be so much drama,” McGinnis said. “I feel that there wouldn’t be a lot of people that trust other people because of what they said.”

Wisniski agrees.

“It would be chaotic and crazy,” Wisniski said. “Some level of discipline is always necessary.”

According to students, no law is absolute.

“Rules can be changed to fit current situations,” Wisniski said. “What if guns become easier to obtain? That’s not very safe. So, rules should be able to be changed.”

Taliaferro also thinks laws aren’t absolute, saying there’s always some things people can’t do that pertain to a law.

“There’s always going to be something you can’t do pertaining to any law,” Taliaferro said.

The students agree that the school probably should restrict certain rights.

“It stinks, but I think it’s necessary,” Taliaferro said.

McGinnis also thinks the school should be a little restrictive, but for a different reason.

“You don’t want kids to be talking about things that aren’t relevant to the school,” McGinnis said. “It bothers me to an extent, but you also don’t want people to say outrageous things.”

18kweisenborn@usd489.com