Reflective Essay On The Right To Free Speech In High School

Throughout my 8th grade year I had a teacher who constantly suppressed my right to free speech, forcing me to completely change the topics or rewrite of various essays, projects, and other writing assignment despite following the proper criteria set out. Despite the effort I put my forth in each and every assignment given to me by my oppressive teacher. In Tinker v. Des Moines school District the supreme court declared “the Court held that school officials cannot censor student speech unless school officials reasonably forecast that the speech will cause a material and substantial disruption of school activities or collide with the rights of others. Mere apprehension of disturbance or an offense given is not enough.” Whether it was ignorance or complete insubordination from a supreme court ruling my assignments were always censored to appease her puritanical beliefs and those of the school system. Fearing for my grade, I had always submitted to my teacher’s requests and re-written new assignments, until one day I simply had enough. I was given a simple poetry assignment, I simply had to write a slam poem about literally anything I wished. My fellow students and I were told to write about how we felt about the world or something we cared about. Inspired by modern satirists such as Trey …show more content…
Knowing the shallow topics my classmates had written, I sat at my desk with a smirk on my face waiting for the fateful arrival of my initial rough draft. Gazing as my teacher handed each student their rough drafts with a smile, but that smile had quickly disappeared when she reached my desk. Suddenly her expression darkened, a foreboding sense of dismay radiated from her as she slipped my rough draft unto my desk filled with red marks and that read “See me after class.” Once the bell rang, I dragged myself to speak to my teacher when she declared. “Your poem is inappropriate. Change the topic of your poem