Starting in September, their home for the next few months became a large white and pink motor home. No home address except for the road they would be travelling on.  Student Press Law Center attorney Mike Heistand joins free speech champion Mary Beth Tinker on her Tinker Tour around the country to talk to schools about free expression in schools and motivate students to exercise their rights.

Tinker’s willingness to live on the road came from her achievement in the eighth grade. She was just a normal girl who roller skated on the weekends with her friend Connie until she made a monumental difference, winning a court case for student expression in schools after getting in trouble for wearing a black armband protesting the Vietnam War.

Tinker hopes her tour will motivate students to have a voice and stand up for their rights as detailed in the First Amendment.

“We’re trying to build a new and better world and so in order to do that, young people should have a voice in that,” Tinker said.

Tinker said her motivation for the tour is young people. Tinker and Heistand are collecting stories from all over the country about students who are standing up for what they believe in. For example, Tinker met students from Garfield High School in Seattle who united with their teachers to boycott standardized tests.

“It’s a time of great crisis in our society and in our world, but that also means that we have a lot of opportunity and  use,” Tinker said.

Heistand said young voices are critical in helping change in society with their new ideas and imagination.  He plans to empower young people with the tour.

“We want them to know what their rights are and then we want them to know that they can use those rights,” Heinstand said.

So far the tour is on about stop forty-five  and is finishing up the fall tour in about a week and a half in Kansas City, Missouri. Then the spring tour will start in March in Seattle and cover much of the west coast. The first stop of the fall tour was Philadelphia on the 50^th anniversary of the Birmingham church bombing.

After starting the tour, Tinker received over 200 invitations from schools and colleges across the country and they planned their route from there.

While teaching and inspiring students across the nation, Tinker said she has learned a lot, as well from her experience.

“I’ve learned about some of the issues that students are standing up and speaking up about,” Tinker said. “I’ve learned also how students and  teachers are joining together  in a lot of ways to stand up for their mutual interests in the school.”

Tinker said she hopes to stand up for the civic health in students that seems to be declining in schools today.

“There has been a decrease in the rights of students since the Tinker ruling,” Tinker said. “It’s manifested in different ways. Maybe it’s manifested by a prior review… it might be manifested by students just censoring yourselves.”
Although there are exceptions to rights and freedom of expression in schools, Tinker said the basic entitlement of rights remains.

“The essential message of the Tinker ruling remains,” Tinker said. “You do have rights in school.”

The Tinker Tour is building up for their spring tour on the west coast starting in March and want to build support. Go to tinkertourusa.org.

Spread the word and follow them on twitter @tinkertour.

The tour is collecting stories from students all around the country about their stories of free expression.