Mary Beth Tinker will be speaker at annual SISPA conference The keynote speaker for the 2014 Winter Conference is Mary Beth Tinker. Mary Beth Tinker was in eighth grade when she and a group of students in Des Moines, Iowa were suspended from school in1965 for wearing black armbands to mourn the Vietnam war dead. The ACLU challenged the students’ suspensions in court, leading to the landmark 1969 Supreme Court ruling in Tinker v. Des Moines that neither teachers or students “shed their constitutional rights… at the schoolhouse gate.” Tinker now lives in Washington DC, where she has been working as pediatric nurse. She holds master’s degrees in nursing and public health, but also speaks frequently with students and teachers to promote civics education and advocate for the rights of young people. This year, she has taken a leave from nursing to travel the country on a “Tinker Tour” civics education road trip, a special project of the Student Press Law Center. Traveling with long-time SPLC attorney, Mike Hiestand, they are speaking with thousands of students across the country. Make plans now to attend the conference Wednesday, Feb. 26 at the SIUC Student Center. Go to sispasiuc.wordpress/ for more information.
Posted on: Thu, 19 Sep 2013 19:41:25 +0000
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