CASE STUDY: A STUDENT'S FREE SPEECH

To the Editor:

To the Editor:

As educators, we are charged with the duty not just to educate our
young people but to help mold them into moral adults. This "mission"
does not always agree with the precept of free speech.

No student in my middle school classroom may speak to me or to any
other student with disrespect or in a hurtful manner. I also expect my
students to limit conversations during class time to the topics I
pick. Does this violate the students' rights to free speech? You bet
it does! Should it carry out of the classroom? I believe that it should.

I hope that any educator who sees his student behaving in a
destructive manner will step in and speak up. I hope that someday my
students thank me for this "violation" of their constitutional rights,
just as I hope that the Alaska student realizes someday that his
principal was acting in what he believed to be the student's best interest.

Claire Hirschhorn

Fair Lawn, N.J.