Speaking Up

How the Supreme Court treats speech cases can be a mirror into that Court's soul, especially when the cases are about student speech. In this fascinating book, Anne Dupre reveals the deep inconsistencies and drunkard's reel of the jurisprudence in these cases, from the iconic Tinker through the recent Bong Hits 4 Jesus, and the difficulties that educators now face in regulating even threatening student speech. I have taught these cases many times, and like the kaleidoscope, they shift each time. But I will never look at them quite the same way after reading the story she tells of conflicting principles and no-win situations for teachers. -- Michael A. Olivas, William B. Bates Distinguished Chair in Law, University of Houston, author of The Law And Higher Education: Cases And Materials on Colleges in Court, Third Edition
Dupre examines the history of the debate on free speech in schools in the contexts of protests, student publications, religious speech, textbook selection, teacher speech, and civility. She also includes as a case study the Alaska case of the students who sued when suspended for displaying a 'Bong Hits 4 Jesus' banner. Well written, insightful, and occasionally humorous, this book is a great study of free speech in schools. -- Mark Bay * Library Journal *
Bring[s] fresh perspectives to an always vibrant area of the law... Dupre subtly makes the argument that the trend toward greater student speech rights since the 1960s has come at a cost to the larger 'liberty of a nation.' -- Mark Walsh * Education Week *
Dupre puts the free-speech-in-school debate in context, pointing up the difference between free speech granted to a kindergartner versus a college student, as students more and more often challenge the elders on free-speech issues. -- Vanessa Bush * Booklist *