Bethel School District v. Fraser Tiffany, Billi, Ashley, and Shelby

Facts! April 26, 1983 Mathew Fraser gave a speech to help nominate his friend Jeff Kuhlman for vice president of his school. "I know a man who is firm - he's firm in his pants, he's firm in his shirt, his character is firm - but most of all, his belief in you the students of Bethel, is firm. Jeff Kuhlman is a man who takes his point and pounds it in. If necessary, he'll take an issue and nail it to the wall. He doesn't attack things in spurts - he drives hard, pushing and pushing until finally - he succeeds. Jeff is a man who will go to the very end - even the climax, for each and every one of you. So please vote for Jeff Kuhlman, as he'll never come between us and the best our school can be. He is firm enough to give it everything.“ –Mathew Fraser They said this speech was in violation of their school code. Mathew got suspended for 3 days.

The Bethel School District Teachers had read his speech before the ceremony and told him he should not read it that if he did there would be consequences Some of the students were embarrassed others yelled and made gestures - After Matthew Fraser did his speech the next day he was called into the office to explain himself. -After explaing he was suspended for 3 days but was able to come back 2 days later. -He was still able to speak at graduation by a vote of his class mates.

*Fraser said that his speech had no sexual intent in the speech *And that it violated his freedom of speech under the first amendment *The District Court awarded respondent 278 dollars in damages 12,750 dollars in litigation costs and attorney's fees *They tried to keep him from speaking at the graduation ceremonies, but he did on June 8, 1983

Court Decision The court sided with the school, they said that the first amendment does not keep the school from prohibiting language like that to be used in school assembly. This case supports the fact that once a student enters a school, they don’t necessarily have the same on situational rights as adults outside of school. One case they used to make their opinion was Tinker Vs. Ds Moines (1969) In the case two of the judges had dissenting opinions. -Marshall -Stevens

This is what we think… It was wrong that he got suspended for 2 days because they would have to be thinking dirty for them to take it that way. If they were not thinking dirty then they would have never noticed what he was implying.