{"id":46753,"date":"2022-02-15T18:18:46","date_gmt":"2022-02-15T23:18:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aclu.org\/issues\/student-speech-and-privacy"},"modified":"2025-06-17T16:07:58","modified_gmt":"2025-06-17T20:07:58","slug":"student-speech-and-privacy","status":"publish","type":"issue","link":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/issues\/free-speech\/student-speech-and-privacy","title":{"rendered":"Student Speech and Privacy"},"parent":46479,"menu_order":1,"template":"","class_list":["post-46753","issue","type-issue","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":{"featured-image":210689,"intro":"The ACLU works in courts, legislatures, and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and the laws of the United States guarantee everyone in this country.","what-you-need-to-know":null,"promo":{"description":"","button":"","url":""},"faq":{"description":"","faq-items":null},"featured-stories":[{"image":210594,"title":"Students\u2019 Rights: Speech, Walkouts, and Other Protests","content-type":"resource","last-updated":"20190123","description":" ","url":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/issues\/free-speech\/student-speech-and-privacy\/students-rights-speech-walkouts-and-other-protests"}],"latest-stories":null,"whats-at-stake":{"title":"What's at Stake","description":"In America, students do not lose their constitutional rights \u201cat the schoolhouse gate.\u201d The protection of students\u2019 rights to free speech and privacy\u2014in and out of school\u2014is essential for ensuring that schools provide both quality education and training in our democratic system and values. Unfortunately, schools continue to demonstrate a disturbing willingness to abridge students\u2019 rights. In recent years, educators have repeatedly disciplined students for speech critical of teachers and administrators. Likewise, we have seen a disturbing trend of schools\u2014especially those providing important e-learning tools like laptops\u2014monitoring students\u2019 activities both on and off campus.\r\n\r\nThe ACLU continues to be a leader in courts and statehouses across the country in protecting both students\u2019 free speech rights and privacy. For instance, we have aggressively fought against policies that require students to surrender their social media passwords to school administrators. Our \u201cDon\u2019t Filter Me!\u201d project seeks to remove school Internet filters that block hundreds of LGBT websites. And we continue to litigate and advocate for legal privacy protections during school searches and seizures.\r\n\r\nA school is not a constitutional dead zone. How can we expect today\u2019s students to grow up to be tomorrow\u2019s civic leaders if we do not respect these fundamental national values in our schools? If students are suspected of criminal activity, school administrators should be forced to make their case before searching students or seizing property. Likewise, students should be free from discipline for speaking out on issues of the day or criticizing teachers or officials. If we respect these principles in the schoolhouse, we protect them in the future."},"actions":"","drupal-id":152,"is_hidden_issue":""},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>American Civil Liberties Union<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The ACLU works in courts, legislatures, and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and the laws of the United States guarantee everyone in this country.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Student Speech and Privacy | American Civil Liberties Union\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The ACLU works in courts, legislatures, and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and the laws of the United States guarantee everyone in this country.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/issues\/free-speech\/student-speech-and-privacy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"American Civil Liberties Union\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-06-17T20:07:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@aclu\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/issues\/free-speech\/student-speech-and-privacy\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/issues\/free-speech\/student-speech-and-privacy\",\"name\":\"Student Speech and Privacy | American Civil Liberties Union\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-02-15T23:18:46+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-06-17T20:07:58+00:00\",\"description\":\"The ACLU works in courts, legislatures, and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and the laws of the United States guarantee everyone in this country.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/issues\/free-speech\/student-speech-and-privacy\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/\",\"name\":\"American Civil Liberties Union\",\"description\":\"The ACLU dares to create a more perfect union \u2014 beyond one person, party, or side. Our mission is to realize this promise of the United States Constitution for all and expand the reach of its guarantees.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"American Civil Liberties Union","description":"The ACLU works in courts, legislatures, and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and the laws of the United States guarantee everyone in this country.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Student Speech and Privacy | American Civil Liberties Union","og_description":"The ACLU works in courts, legislatures, and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and the laws of the United States guarantee everyone in this country.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/issues\/free-speech\/student-speech-and-privacy","og_site_name":"American Civil Liberties Union","article_modified_time":"2025-06-17T20:07:58+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_site":"@aclu","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/issues\/free-speech\/student-speech-and-privacy","url":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/issues\/free-speech\/student-speech-and-privacy","name":"Student Speech and Privacy | American Civil Liberties Union","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/#website"},"datePublished":"2022-02-15T23:18:46+00:00","dateModified":"2025-06-17T20:07:58+00:00","description":"The ACLU works in courts, legislatures, and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and the laws of the United States guarantee everyone in this country.","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/issues\/free-speech\/student-speech-and-privacy"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/","name":"American Civil Liberties Union","description":"The ACLU dares to create a more perfect union \u2014 beyond one person, party, or side. Our mission is to realize this promise of the United States Constitution for all and expand the reach of its guarantees.","inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"American Civil Liberties Union","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue\/46753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/issue"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue\/46753\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":210696,"href":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue\/46753\/revisions\/210696"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue\/46479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}