ABSTRACT
In 1965 three students were suspended from the Des Moines, Iowa public schools (two were in high school, one in junior high) for wearing black armbands to protest the Vietnam War. When their parents challenged the legality of the suspension they posed a question the courts had not heretofore confronted: does the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of speech apply to students in school? (1) This is but one facet of a larger issue, the legal status of young people, particularly adolescents, an issue which has been the source of continuing dispute both in and out of court since the mid-1960s. (2) As one commentator notes, referring to recent Supreme Court decisions, 'the Court has continued to hear children's rights cases with mixed and at times incongruous results.' (3)
