This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Friday, March 25, 2016.

I'm Caleb Brown.

American Public Schools often censor controversial student speech that the Constitution protects.

Catherine J Ross is a professor of law

at the George Washington University Law School.

She's author of Lessons in Censorship

how schools and courts subvert students first amendment rights.

At the Cato Institute earlier this month, Ross discussed some of the various intrusions of schools

into the lives and even minds of American young people.

The heart of the problem is that and even minds of American young people.

The heart of the problem is that too many principals and school board members don't know or don't

understand the limits the Constitution places on their ability to control what

students say, while others simply disregard the law

because they don't like it.

As I worked on this book, almost everybody

I talked to informally said I have a censorship story either from their own days in school or from their children.

And long-time teachers incredulously told me that they had no idea that students had First Amendment

rights and they asked where I had come up with such a creative notion.

So in proceeding, I have to begin by giving you a whirlwind tour of First Amendment

doctrine as it applies to students and then I'll turn to some stories that

capture some of the particular contemporary dilemmas.

The speech clause of the First Amendment is very concise.

...