I really enjoyed listening to this expository piece by Charlie Thaxton. It was interesting how he juxtaposed a historical Supreme Court trial on student's rights with the present situation in the United States. By making this connection to the present, readers can take something away from this piece because even if we may have not lived during the Tinker vs. Demoine School District trial, we can understand the role it plays for students today.

One of my favorite parts about the piece was the sound byte that began the entire audio clip. This sound byte came from the Tinker vs. Demoine School District trial and it really set the tone for the rest of the piece. My only advice is that while I was listening to Charlie's narration, I hoped another sound byte, maybe from the recent trial that he described, would be brought in again.

This is a great expository peice. I had never known about a ruling that dealt with students' rights and for that matter, made it up to the Supreme Court. Very good breakdown of this 1969 Supreme Court case. But I think the main difference here between the '69 case and '03 incident you compare are the time, place, and manner restrictions that come into play. Wearing a black arm band is a bit different than wearing a shirt of President Bush that says, "International Terrorist." The only thing I was left confused about was if schools make their own policy on what is disruptive to the normal flow of school, or if they follow the precedent set out in the 69' case dealing with the armbands. Despite the lack of clarity on that issue, this was a good analysis of students' rights in the past and present.