List of Rights at School All Students Have
Few students are aware of their rights at school. This disregard for students’ rights often allows for the discrimination of learners at the school with teachers who are oblivious of these rights often adopting punitive measures to achieve various institutional ideals despite the school rights put in place to protect the student.
Ideally, every learner should familiarize themselves with various students’ rights at school to ensure fair treatment and access to various privileges allowed for their conditions. This article will highlight the rights and privileges of students in school, helping you access all your rights without falling against various regulations provided by your institution.
What rights do students have in school?
- Speech rights
Freedom of speech in schools allows students to air their opinions regardless of disagreement of these views by the school administration. For instance, students are allowed to air out their grievances against prohibitive regulations and also express their stance on matters such as anti-abortion and pro-LGBT without facing any persecution from the institution.
As such, the school should provide avenues for students to air their grievances and create a conducive environment that allows for the free expression of a student’s views.
- Dress codes
Often, institutions provide a ton of regulations regarding school attire within the school. While all students are expected to adhere to these regulations, there is an exception for cultural and religious beliefs.
In many cases, students have been forced to give up their rosaries, headscarves, and other religious symbols in a bid to achieve uniformity among students. Unfortunately, this move creates an unwelcoming environment for students from various religious and cultural backgrounds, often causing them discomfort for giving up their religious and cultural attire.
A student can thus seek legal assistance if an institution strongarms them to ditch religious/ cultural attire and also when the school denies them from adjusting their uniform to adhere to their cultural and religious dress codes.
It is, however, worth noting that the school can contest this privilege if your dress choice is disruptive to school activities.
- Disability rights
Each student is entitled to fair treatment in terms of accessing quality education and partaking in school activities. For this, institutions are required to make the necessary medical and structural adjustments, e.g., building ramps to provide a conducive atmosphere for students with various disabilities.
Therefore, feel free to air your grievances on any limitations within the school that compromise equal participation of students with disabilities in school activities.
- LGBT rights
A commonly contested issue among various student rights in college is LGBT rights. In full, the LGBT acronym refers to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons within a community.
LGBT students should be allowed to express their gender without being bullied or persecuted. Therefore, teachers should provide awareness and react to any bullying of pro-LGBT students. This right also allows students to fully express themselves in LGBT-themed clubs and to don pro-LGBT attire without persecution.
- Fair assessment rights
The school system brings together a diverse range of students with varying styles of study and interests. Unfortunately, a standard assessment approach offers an unfair disadvantage for students suffering from various learning disorders.
Teachers should be required to provide fair assessments that allow all students to demonstrate their knowledge without various barriers. This ensures the steady progress of each learner without dooming any student to subpar results in light of any disorders they could be suffering from.
- Immigrant rights
The rights of immigrants are perhaps the most abused with immigrants being denied various privileges due to the lack of papers. however, every student should be allowed access to quality education regardless of lacking documentation.
When these students show poor mastery in English proficiency, they should not be turned away from school, but rather provided the necessary instruction to allow them to access all their rights to fair assessment and inclusivity in school activities.