Mary Beth Tinker, the plaintiff from the Supreme Court case Tinker v. Des Moines, who fought for students’ First Amendment rights within public schools, is on her Tinker Tour; she gave a presentation Wednesday night in Galbreath Chapel to promote civics education and the rights and stories of young people.
The Post sat down with Tinker before her presentation to discuss the court case, what it means for current public school students and what she is now doing.
The Post: What can you tell me about the ruling of Tinker v. Des Moines?
Tinker: It was in 1969. The Supreme Court ruled 7-2, a strong ruling for what education should be in a democracy, saying that schools should not be enclaves of totalitarianism that students are persons, and that neither students nor teachers leave their right to expression, constitutional rights, especially when they enter the school.
There are two exceptions: they said that students cannot substantially disrupt school free speech, and students cannot impinge on the rights of others with their free speech.
TP: When you were in high school, people protested the Vietnam War. What does the Tinker v. Des Moines ruling mean for current OU students?
Tinker: It has been applied to college students, but the Supreme Court has never taken a case to apply either the Tinker ruling, or the Hazelwood ruling, which was an awesomely important ruling, for high school students’ free speech rights, and journalism.
TP: Can you give an overview of your presentation?
Tinker: I'll be telling the story again about how the Supreme Court ruled that students do have free speech rights in public schools. I'll be honoring a student who was in the media program here named Tyler Weymouth, who died of cancer after he graduated and worked at the Newseum. The Newseum in Washington D.C. is a museum for the First Amendment.
To honor him, his parents have set up this yearly event at Ohio University because he loved Ohio University, and he loved the Bobcats. They set up this yearly event to celebrate the First Amendment. It's going to happen every year, this is the first year, and I'm very honored to be a speaker at the kickoff for it, and honored to be here honoring Tyler Weymouth.
TP: You travel around talking to students about the case, civics education and young people’s stories, but what do you do in your free time?
Tinker: I’m a retired nurse. So, traveling and speaking to college students is what I do in my free time, but I also advocate for peace. Right now, I'm advocating for peace in Gaza. I like to go down to the House of Representatives and see what representatives I can find, and I go down there with groups of others. Some of them go almost every day to advocate for a ceasefire.
I'm against solving problems with militarism and war and killing, so I speak up about that. I am also involved in urban agriculture because I believe we should grow organic food and that there should be more healthy food available. I love to garden, and we have a project at the public college in D.C. where I live to do that.
I also play the piano; I like to spend time with my little grandson, and my son and his wife, all with my family.
