It is important to note that the school board met on Dec. 14, to discuss the possibility of students wearing armbands at school. This meeting occurred two days before the Tinker children and Eckhardt wore their black armbands to school. The school board believed that since the students were wearing the armbands, in clear defiance of the recent addition to the dress code, many students would redirect their focus from their lessons and focus on the controversies surrounding the Vietnam War. This view believes that the students should follow the rules placed by the administration despite of the students’ rights and personal beliefs. This view reinforces the discipline on students by the administration.
The majority opinion was written by Justice Abe Fortas. In the written opinion Fortas writes, “The wearing of an armband for the purpose of expressing certain views is the type of symbolic act that is within the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment,” (Cornell Law School). This law case discusses the limit and extent of the First Amendment when applied to school students. Although a black armband is not inherently speech, it is a symbol of free speech and of a political