Bethel School District No. v. Fraser (403 )

In reversing the lower courts, the justices ruled that the school district had the authority to punish Fraser. Joined by four others, Chief Justice Burger wrote the opinion of the Court. Justices Blackmun and Brennan concurred with the decision, but Brennan filed a separate opinion. Justices Marshall and Stevens filed dissenting opinions.

Burger declared that adults enjoy wide freedom in public discourse. However, "the constitutional rights of students in public school" are more limited than "the rights of adults in other settings." Burger argued that Tinker did not protect "offensive" speech. Nor did Tinker protect speech that is "materially disruptive."

Schools exist, Burger continued, to instill "the fundamental values necessary to the maintenance of a democratic political system." These democratic values "disfavor" the use of terms "highly offensive or threatening to others." In teaching these values, teachers and older students serve as role models just as parents do in the home.

The schools, as instruments of the state, may determine that the essential lessons of civil, mature conduct cannot be conveyed in a school that tolerates, lewd, indecent, or offensive speech . . . A high school assembly or classroom is no place for a sexually explicit monologue . . . Accordingly, it was perfectly appropriate for the school to disassociate itself to make the point to the pupils that vulgar speech and lewd conduct is wholly inconsistent with the "fundamental values" of public school education.

Chief Justice Burger also ruled that school officials did not violate Fraser's due process rights. The school's regulations gave Fraser sufficient notice that "lewd" speech could subject him to sanctions. School rules need not be as rigidly precise as a criminal code.