ABSTRACT
In the rare cases that such conflicts do reach the legal system, the courts take many factors into consideration, including:
1. Speech that takes place on a high school campus can be controlled to a greater degree than speech that takes place on a college campus. The courts’ rationale for this disparity is two-fold. First, college students are older and assumed to be more mature than high school students, rendering them more capable of processing complex or controversial information and making appropriate judgments regarding its validity. Second, the college campus is often a venue for debating conflicting political ideas and opinions, thus making many campus activities (including student media) the equivalent of public forums; the same cannot be said about the high school environment.
