This day in music - December 1, 1987: The Supreme Court upholds the sacking of a Kentucky teacher for showing her class Pink Floyd's The Wall

By Richard K. Barry

Sometimes you come across these little bits of information on the web, and you really have to make sure it's not an Onion-type send up. But, no, this appears to be real.

In December of 1987, a Kentucky teacher lost her appeal in the U.S. Supreme Court over her sacking after showing Pink Floyd's film The Wall to her class. The court decided that the film was not suitable for minors with its bad language and sexual content.

I found a very interesting discussion of the case at a website called The First Amendment Center. This concerned the Sixth Circuit ruling on the case, but the same legal principles no doubt applied for the Supreme Court.

The comment below was in response to a question asking if a teacher could be punished for teaching subjects school officials or parents deem unsuitable:

Probably. Teachers must remember that most courts consistently rule that teachers do not have a First Amendment right to trump the curriculum mandated by the school board. Furthermore, some courts take a narrow view of what constitutes "communicative conduct" that implicates the First Amendment.

For example, the Sixth Circuit ruled that school officials did not violate the First Amendment rights of a teacher when they fired her for showing the R-rated movie Pink Floyd -- The Wall in her classroom. Even though the Supreme Court has determined since the 1950s that movies are a form of expression protected by the First Amendment, the Sixth Circuit determined that the teacher's conduct in showing the R-rated movie was not "expressive or communicative, under the circumstances presented."

And besides all that, we wouldn't want students exposed to themes like alienation, social isolation, drug use, marital infidelity, and violence. Best to keep shit like that out of the classroom and leave it on the street where it belongs. Better they should muddle their way through the really big questions in life without any help. They don't need no education like that. 

(Cross-posted at Lippmann's Ghost.)