US Appeals Court unanimously upholds 1st Amendment rights of public school students | Eastern NC Now

student disciplined for "All Lives Matter" shirt

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In a unanimous decision, the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has upheld the 1st Amendment rights to free speech of public school students.  The case involved a principal demanding a student remove an "All Lives Matter" t-shirt.  A Clinton judge at the district court level had upheld the principal's action, trying to create an exception to Supreme Court 1st amendment cases.   The Court of Appeals minced no words in telling the Clinton judge that he was wrong.

The Court of Appeals was unanimous for the First Amendment rights of students even though it was composed of two Biden judges and one Bush judge.

https://justthenews.com/nation/free-speech/first-amendment-protects-elementary-school-students-appeals-court-says-all-lives

This issue recently came before the Beaufort County School Board, when proposed new policies that came down from Raleigh contained a provision to allow school officials to force students to remove "hate symbols"  which the proposed policy did not define. This is like the Orwellian term "hate speech" which is always left undefined so the left interpretsit  as any speech they do not like.

Conservatives on the board sought to remove this anti-free speech undefined term.  Liberals, vocally led by the most active liberal on the board, Carolyn Walker, fought to keep it in and narrowly prevailed.   Conservatives later brought the issue back, and with a change in position of one of the swing votes on the board got it removed.

 


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Comments

( March 14th, 2026 @ 10:45 am )
 
Bubba: I agree, and with School Choice in NC we are moving in the right direction.

The Public Education Industry needs School Choice, or it will never improve. Two truisms abound: 1. Without competition these monopoly created schools will never improve; 2. Public Schools "made their beds made their beds and now they must lay in them." The Public Education Industry, with their Leftist core approach to human values and the dispensing of that information by instructive fiat has led them down the road to ruin.

Competition is the only impetus to push the Public Education Industry in all the proper directions.

The Left hates education, and the Left must be politically destroyed to save education and this Representative Republic.
Bubba said:
( March 14th, 2026 @ 9:53 am )
 
As our School Board veers off to the left, we need more private school and charter school spaces so students can get a real education.
Van Zant said:
( March 13th, 2026 @ 8:31 pm )
 
From a conservative perspective, the Beaufort County School Board has gone backwards, because of the outside and inside meddling of the two Walker board members. Carolyn and Randy Walker have worked on the inside of the local Republican Party and from the outside of their own school district. One of these ultra-liberals (Carolyn) serves on the School Board and the other ultra-liberal (Randy) serves on the County Commission. They both are registered Republicans and are in the good graces of the corrupt local Republican party leadership. People that pay attention have long known that the Walkers serve as ultra-liberals on their respective boards.

Two of their three school board recruits for other districts than their own, (District 6 and made it through the primary. The third candidate was trounced in the district 2 primary despite the heavy involvement of the Walkers. The two that made it are both former teachers and members of the NCAE. The NCAE is a radical left organization. For example, the present NCAE chairperson was quoted recently in relation to ICE agents in North Carolina. She said, "And to be clear, we do not want them here."
( March 13th, 2026 @ 9:21 am )
 
I am afraid our own School Board went backward in a big way in the primary. Liberal Carolyn Walker will be the Queen Bee after November. Replacing two conservatives with two retired school teachers who have been members of the radical teachers union will pull the board substantially to the left.



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