In December of 1965, a group of adults and students in Des Moines planned to protest the War in Vietnam and show support for a truce by wearing black armbands during the holiday season. The schools of Des Moines became aware of this plan and adopted a policy that would require any student wearing an armband to school to remove their armband. Failure to do so would be met with a suspension until return without the armband. On December 16th, Mary Beth Tinker and Christopher Eckhardt wore black armbands to their schools. John Tinker wore his armband the next day. All three students were sent home and suspended from school until they would return without their armbands. This is when the question of the school’s violation of the student’s rights
