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Mary Beth Tinker was 13 years old when she with a group of other students wore black arm bands to school to protest the Vietnam war. They were suspended from school for refusing to remove the arm bands. They returned to school after Christmas break without the bands but wearing black clothing for the rest of the school year as a protest. With the help of the ACLU they finally won a landmark Supreme Court decision in 1969 which ruled that students do not lose their constitutional free speech rights to freedom of speech or expression at school. Mary continues today to educate young people about their rights by speaking frequently to student groups across the USA. She is also active in directing the Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project at American University, mobilizing law students to teach courses on constitutional law and juvenile justice in public schools. She is also a registered nurse, active in her union and has masters degrees in public health and nursing. The ACLU in 2006 renamed its annual youth affairs award the Mary Beth Tinker Youth Involvement Award. Her excellent pitch today is that kids can shake things up. Today all public and private schools and universities that receive federal funding are required to teach the Constitution. Mary talks the Constitution from ground up so students really get the message. For working hard and smart to provide a decent society for all of us, Mary Beth Tinker has been named Futuresaver of the Week. Click the links below for more information.
Links to other sites on the Web
Tinker v. Des Moines (393 U.S. 503, 1969) | American Civil Liberties Union
Wearing the Right to Free Speech on Her Sleeve - washingtonpost.com
Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia