What can I say? In this time of war, high school students are facing ever-stricter limits on their First Amendment rights, especially if their opinions aren't patriotic. (National).

IN ANDREWS, TEX., THERE'S PROBABLY NEVER A GOOD TIME for a writer in the high school newspaper to describe President George W. Bush as a "buffoon."

Andrews is in West Texas, about as conservative a patch of territory as you can find in the United States. It's a 45-minute drive from Midland, hometown of a certain American President. But 18-year-old senior Lane Haygood did not let that stand in the way when he wrote a column attacking the Bush administration, especially its military and foreign policy.

"So far," Haygood wrote, "we are yet to be invaded by a foreign power, though if Bush keeps this harebrained presidential policy-making up, I may just welcome an invasion with open arms."

The timing was uncannily bad. The school newspaper, The Round Up, hit the hallways of Andrews High School and local businesses at about midday Sept. 11, only hours after terrorists attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, killing thousands.

In the following days, at the order of school officials, every copy of The Round Up that could be found was confiscated, both in the school and in the community. The high school principal, Mike Rhodes, wrote a letter to the local paper apologizing "with humility and embarrassment" for "the irresponsible use of our school newspaper." And Haygood was denounced by many in the community of about 10,000 people, with some calling him a traitor.

The incident is one of many since Sept. 11 where freedom of expression in high schools has come under fire. It is a precarious right in the best of times, but it has recently come into conflict with a growing intolerance for unpatriotic outspokenness, and even an insistence on conformity. Nationwide, some students are learning that during a time of war, what they say, do, or wear--whether in opposition or support of the war--is being looked at with closer scrutiny.

"There seems to be, in a time of national trauma such as this, a grasping for simplicity and a putting of security over anything else," says Paul McMasters, the First Amendment ombudsman for the Freedom Forum, a free-speech advocacy group. "The problem is that this goes against what we say we stand for."

School principals say the competing demands of their job often force them to make tough calls. "Most principals want kids to have as much freedom of expression as possible," says Bill J. Bond, a principal in Paducah, Ky., who is active in a national principals' organization. "But on the other hand, the main purpose of school is learning, and you want to have an atmosphere that's conducive to learning."

Yet in seeking to prevent disruption, some school officials are restricting expression. The list of such disputes is growing. Sometimes they are simply baffling, like the decision of an elementary school in Topeka, Kan., to require that Halloween costumes have a patriotic theme. But other incidents are more troubling, activists say. Consider the following cases from across the country:

* Charleston, W.Va.--The American Civil Liberties Union has taken up the cause of Katie Sierra, a 15-year-old student critical of the war in Afghanistan. She was suspended after she wore homemade T-shirts expressing her political views and tried to form an anarchist club. One T-shirt had the sarcastic statement: "When I saw the dead and dying Afghani children on TV, I felt a newly recovered sense of national security. God Bless America."

A school board member accused her of treason. Sierra's mother, citing concern for the teenager's safety, withdrew her from school after she said she was harassed and assaulted by other students. When Sierra sued the school district, the judge in her case said no one could guarantee her safety if she returned.

"If you have any different beliefs," Sierra says, "if you don't support your country, then you're a terrorist. It's not fair. There are other opinions in this world."

* Alexandria, Va.--Members of a high school Amnesty International club put up posters in stairwells reading, "War Will Only Kill More." Students reported that the posters were torn down repeatedly, sometimes by teachers. One student said she had received an A on an essay she wrote that was critical of American foreign policy; when the essays were going to be displayed on a bulletin board, she was asked to write another on a subject that might not cause offense.

* Newton, Mass.--Howard Zinn, an antiwar veteran and historian, drew outrage after speaking at a high school about the war in Afghanistan. At the school assembly, where attendance was optional, Zinn denounced the terrorist attacks. But he suggested that the war would be ineffective against terrorism and urged Americans to be more compassionate to the plight of the rest of the world. Angered parents responded at a school board meeting. One called Zinn a "screwball." Another demanded, "What on earth did you hope to accomplish by bringing this traitor, this maggot, to lecture our community's children?"

* Fairview Park, Ohio--High school junior Aaron Pettit was suspended for 10 days after hanging pictures on his locker of airplanes bombing Afghanistan. "God have mercy," one of them said, "because we will not." School officials said they were concerned about offending students of Arab descent. Pettit sued and won a settlement. "I was very surprised," Pettit told reporters, referring to the suspension. "I was just showing how I felt, and I thought I could do that."

As a matter of law, Pettit was right--sort of. Even in school, students are allowed to say what they think. In a landmark 1969 decision, the Supreme Court upheld a student's constitutional right to free expression (see "Expression vs. Disruption," opposite page). But there are limits, mainly designed to ensure an orderly environment for learning. And since Sept. 11, those limits appear to be getting stricter.

Some civil liberties advocates suggest that this may be trickling down from the very top of the government. U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, for example, has argued that criticism of the administration gives "ammunition to America's enemies, and pause to America's friends."

Many agree that, in light of the Sept. 11 attacks, Americans may need to rethink the balance between liberty and security. But critics argue there is little reason to clamp down on kids who hang posters on their lockers or wear politically provocative T-shirts.

"In time of war, there are justifiable limitations on free expression--for example, protecting troop movements," says Mark Goodman, executive director of the Student Press Law Center, which provides advice to student journalists. "But the point is, in high school, we're not talking about anything remotely related to that."

Some schools, in fact, have used the recent events as an opportunity to promote dialogue about difficult issues and encourage free expression. In Bexley, Ohio, school officials defended their decision to allow a local Muslim activist to speak to students and suggest how American foreign policy might have contributed to the attacks.

As it happens, the Freedom Forum chose this year to begin a national First Amendment project aimed at students in kindergarten through 12th grade. The idea is to teach students the importance of the amendment and encourage schools to make it part of daily life through projects like writing "class constitutions."

But McMasters, the Freedom Forum ombudsman, believes that many schools are missing a natural opportunity, what school professionals sometimes refer to as a "teachable moment." "Instead of teaching that democracy is strong enough to accommodate a wide range of viewpoints, questions, and comments," he says, "those in charge of our students taught exactly the wrong message."

After all, school is about learning, including from mistakes. Lane Haygood, for example, says he would not write his column about Bush the same way now. For one thing, the buffoon reference, he said, would be gone.

"I called Bush a lot of names--childish, petty names," he says, "and that was unprofessional of me. But so far as my opinions, every one of my political positions stays the same."

FOCUS: Schools, Determined to Preserve Decorum, Clamp Down on Antiwar Speech

TEACHING OBJECTIVES

To help students understand the controversy over new restrictions on students' First Amendment rights, specifically schools' censoring of speech opposed to the war in Afghanistan.

Discussion Questions:

* Do you agree that there should be some limits on high school students' freedom of expression? If you agree, what limits would you set? If you disagree, should students be free to say or write anything they like?

* The Freedom Forum's Paul McMasters says that in a time of national trauma people grasp for simplicity. What do you believe accounts for this phenomenon?

CLASSROOM STRATEGIES

Before Reading: Have students read the First Amendment to the Constitution.

Critical Thinking: Next, have students reread the first three paragraphs of the article. Then open the class to discussion of the language used by student journalist Lane Haygood. Ask: Could Haygood have demonstrated his opposition to President Bush and his policies in a more effective manner? Ask students to suggest the pros and cons of using incendiary language. (It grabs attention, but it may anger people who might otherwise be willing to listen to an opposing view.)

Note writer Eric Nagourney's comment that freedom of expression in high schools is a "precarious right in the best of times." Ask: Why is freedom of expression sometimes a precarious right? Note Paul McMasters's Comment on page 12, that schools should be teaching how democracy is strong enough to accommodate a range of viewpoints. Are restrictions on unpopular views in school different from restrictions on adults' speech out of school?

Judging Each Case: Try breaking the class into "defense" and "prosecution" teams. Have teams address each of the five cases outlined in the article. In two or three sentences, students should defend and oppose the teens in each case. Are the cases all the same? In which ways do they differ?

Web Watch: Log on to the Student Press Law Center at www.splc.org for information about students' First Amendment rights, including recent court decisions involving press freedom.

Eric NAGOURNEY is a staff editor for The New York Times.