Tinker v. Des Monies

  • Students plan protest against the Vietnam war by wearing black wrist bands

    A group of students met to make plans to protest against the Vietnam War. They decided to wear black armbands to school on Thursday, December 16, and continue wearing them untill new year's day.
  • Period: to

    Duration

  • The Principals of the school discover the meaning of the bands and asks the students to remove them.

    The Tinker children and a friend wore the arm bands to school. After arriving at school the principal asked the children to take off the armbands. They did not remove them and were suspended untill they came to school not wearing them.
  • Christopher Eckhardt age 16, 13-year-old Mary Beth Tinker, and 15-year-old brother, John Tinker wore the wrist bands to school after being asked not to.

    The children return to school without the armbands on January 1, the date they decided their protest was over. However their fathers filed a suit in U.S. District Court asking for a small amount of money. After the court refued to issue an injunction, the TInkers appealed their case to the U.S Court of appeals. After another let down with a tie in the vote, the Tinkers appealed the case to the Supreme Court.
  • School board meeting held to discuss the armband ban

  • The New York Times and publishes a The Des Moines Register write an article about the issue

  • School board decides to uphold the wristband band

  • Dan Johnston of the Iowa Civil Liberties Union files a complaint on the behalf of the students.

  • The case reaches the Supreme Court

  • The Supreme Court rules that the school violated the rights of the students