Connetquot High School students enrolled Christine Lennihan's AP Government and Scott MacLagan's Civil Rights classes recently attended the Icons of Freedom Symposium held at Touro Law Center in Central Islip on Nov. 30.  

During their visit, the students met with and engaged in constructive conversation with Mary Beth Tinker and Cathy Kuhlmeier, who were both subjects of Supreme Court cases in the past.  

Mrs. Tinker served as one of the lead plaintiffs in the Supreme Court case Tinker v. Des Moines, when she was a 13-year-old student who was trying to convey her message of student expression in protest of the Vietnam War. Additionally, Mrs. Kuhlmeier was the subject of the famous Hazelwood vs. Kuhlmeier Supreme Court Case in 1988, where she claimed that her school did not have the right to violate her First Amendment rights by removing an article written for her school newspaper. 

This event served as the 50th anniversary of the landmark holding which is the basis for First Amendment rights in schools today. To this day, both women continue to work as advocates for students' rights. 

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