Mary Beth Tinker: Difference between revisions

Mary Beth Tinker
Born	1952 Des Moines, Iowa

Mary Beth Tinker is an American free speech activist known for her role in the 1969 Tinker v. Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School District Supreme Court case.

a student at Warren Harding Junior High

Tinker v. Des Moines

Tinker was a junior high school student who wore black armbands to school in protest of the United State' involvement in Vietnam as a member of a group of students who decided to do this.

On December 11, 1965, a student named Christopher Eckhardt held a meeting with a large group of students as his home in Des Moines, Iowa. Planning a school protest against the Vietnam War, the group decided to wear black armbands to school on December 16. They chose to keep wearing them until January 1, 1966. During a meeting for Des Moines School District principals on December 14, 1965, a policy was adopted that required all students wearing armbands to school to remove them. In this meeting, principals agreed that students were to be suspended if they disagreed.

Thirteen-year-old Mary Beth Tinker was a a student at Warren Harding Junior High who was among two dozen elementary, middle, and high school students that wore black arm bands with peace signs on them on December 16 and 17. Five students were singled out for punishment, including Mary Beth and her brother John.

Tinker reported that immediately after being suspended, her family received many threats from the public. "A man who had a radio talk show threatened my father on the air. Red paint was thrown on our house. A woman called on the phone, asked for me by name, and then said, 'I’m going to kill you!'"

On December 21, 200 people attended the district school board meeting. Deciding to postpone a decision, at a January 3 meeting, the school board voted 5-2 to uphold the principals' ban. On March 14, the Iowa Civil Liberties Union filed a formal complaint on behalf of Christopher Eckhardt, John Tinker, his sister Mary Beth, and their fathers in the U. S. District Court of the Southern District of Iowa. The case claimed that by suspending them, Des Moines Public Schools had infringed on their right to free expression as enshrined in First Amendment. The District Court dismissed the complaint and upheld the constitutionality of the school actions, on the basis that the students disturbed learning in their schools.

After that, the justices for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit were split, leaving the District Court ruling standing. The case reached the Supreme Court on November 12, 1968. On February 24, 1969, the Supreme Court found that by suspending Tinker and her peers for wearing the armbands, Des Moines School District the students' First Amendment rights. The Supreme Court’s decision in Tinker is said to have set the legal standard for student free expression for many years.

After the trial

Tinker's family moved to St. Louis, Missouri after the trial.

Present

Today, Tinker conducts speaking tours across the United States to teach children and youth about their rights. A youth rights advocate, Tinker has a professional background as a pediatric nurse who is active in union activism and holds masters degrees in both public health and nursing.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, in fall 2013, Tinker began a national tour promoting youth activism and youth rights.

Honors

In 2000, an annual youth advocacy award of the Marshall-Brennan Project at Washington College of Law at American University honored Tinker by naming the award after her. In 2006, the ACLU National Board of Directors’ Youth Affairs Committee renamed its annual youth affairs award the Mary Beth Tinker Youth Involvement Award.

See also

• History of Youth Rights in the United States