19 | Student Sit-ins and More

When are student sit-ins protected by the First Amendment? How can coaches maintain team cohesion and discipline without becoming draconian? Why is it always the cheer squad? In this episode, we tackle the case of Gonzales v. Burley High School, a fascinating case involving a new cheer coach and some very displeased cheerleaders. This one is pretty wild. It has to do with students being punished for protesting, but wait, there's more! It also has favoritism, retribution, grudges, and a coach's rulebook that reads more like a dictator's manifesto than a cheerleading guidebook. It's got a laundry list of discipline, but it's also got a little youth resilience in the face of injustice. Grab your pompoms. This episode has a lot of S.P.I.R.I.T. We also discuss an update on the Mahmoud v. McKnight case that we covered in Episode 12: LGBTQ-Inclusive Books and Parental Rights, dealing with a district's decision to remove parents' ability to opt out of the use of newly adopted LGBTQ-inclusive texts in the elementary school classroom. Keywords: First Amendment, Free Speech, Student Protest, Extracurriculars, Student Discipline, Parental Rights, LGBTQ, Religion