In the recent 5-4 Supreme Court decision banning speech “promoting illegal drug use” at American public schools, Justice Clarence Thomas, in his concurring opinion, outlines the sad decline and fall of American public education. Read it here.
Would this even be a question if schools were not publicly controlled? Principals, via the power granted to them by parents, would have the authority to return the three “D’s” to education – decorum, decency and diligence. Thomas correctly points out that this is a bigger issue than a simple free speech question, it is about the substitution of courts and regulations in place of parents and the principals’ offices.
I dont usually read Supreme court opinions, but Thomas’ opinion is an interesting catelogue of the how the public schools have come to the current situation. having spent 11 years in parochial schools, I was unaware you could do anything but exactly what the principal told you to do. That is the major difference between private and public schools; the ability to maintain discipline