Freedom of speech continues to be challenged in our schools. In B.L. v. Mahanoy Area School District (2019), a court of appeals in Pennsylvania held that a school district violated a student’s First Amendment rights when they removed her from a school event for a Snapchat message. The message was sent by the student on a weekend and away from the school. The case made it to the U.S. Supreme Court, and the final ruling on Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L. (2021) found that the student had First Amendment rights to free speech and that the school’s decision to suspend her was wrong.

As you gathered from this activity, there is not always one right “answer” to any given situation. A Code of Ethics provides moral standards to help guide your decision making and teaching practice. It helps with what you should do. It does not provide specific directions on what to do or even how to do it.

With this Code of Ethics in mind, this teacher could argue that reading this book stimulates the spirit of inquiry and knowledge acquisition, and not reading the book would unreasonably deny the students access to varying points of view