Some Americans take for granted their right to say what they think, a liberty guaranteed by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (see "First Amendment 101"). Yet freedom of speech doesn’t apply equally everywhere. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that public schools can limit speech that they believe interferes with learning. Even out of school, free speech has limits. As the late Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once wrote, the First Amendment does not protect anyone “falsely shouting fire in a theater and causing a panic.”
This cartoon comments on the topic of free speech at school. Study it, then answer the questions.
1. Where is the person in the cartoon? How can you tell?
2. In which country is she, and how do you know?
3. What point might the text and footnote be making?
4. Why might a “free speech zone” be important to students?