‘Tinker Tour’ Will Visit SU’s Newhouse School Sept. 25

Mary Beth Tinker was a 13-year-old junior high school student when she and other students wore black armbands to school in protest of the Vietnam War. After being suspended, they sued the school district on First Amendment grounds. Their case eventually went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which issued a landmark opinion in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (1969), ruling that students do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.”

Free speech advocate Mary Beth Tinker, who made headlines as the teenage girl who precipitated a landmark 1969 Supreme Court case, will visit the Newhouse School on Wednesday, Sept. 25, as part of her nationwide “Tinker Tour.”

A guest of the school’s Tully Center for Free Speech, Tinker will speak at 3 p.m. in the Joyce Hergenhan Auditorium in Newhouse 3.

Tinker was a 13-year-old junior high school student when she and other students wore black armbands to school in protest of the Vietnam War. After being suspended, they sued the school district on First Amendment grounds. Their case eventually went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which issued a landmark opinion in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (1969), ruling that students do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.”

“Her case has formed the backbone to a body of case law on student speech and scholastic journalism,” says Tully Center Director Roy Gutterman. “She is an exciting and dynamic speaker and an inspiring advocate for free speech and student speech.”

Tinker and First Amendment attorney Mike Hiestand are traveling the country on the “Tinker Tour” to bring real-life civics lessons to schools and communities and share stories about how students are keeping the First Amendment alive today.

Her talk is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Roy Gutterman at 315-443-3523 or rsgutter@syr.edu.