Student protest is a proud democratic tradition on college campuses, where students can take part in the public conversation and draw attention to issues they care about. Yet these protests often run into difficulties, including safety hazards and disruption of campus life. School officials must balance their responsibility to maintain order with their obligation to protect free speech rights.

This article explores these delicate balances by looking at a few recent examples of student activism. In one case, high school students staged a walkout to protest the election of Donald Trump. In another, students are urging their schools to divest from Israel. The latter issue has become especially divisive, with some students arguing that their schools are complicit in the Israel-Hamas war by virtue of their investments and academic collaborations with Israeli institutions.

While student activism has sometimes crossed into unprotected conduct and speech, the vast majority of what students do is protected by the First Amendment. It’s important for students to understand these boundaries so that they can exercise their rights with confidence.

Since the late 1960s, many students have demonstrated to address a range of issues. They have pressed for lower tuition rates, demanded that their schools withdraw from the Vietnam War, and called for greater civil rights protections. Some of their demands have resonated broadly—such as the sit-ins that sparked the movement for racial equality in Greensboro, North Carolina, and the demonstrations that brought about the desegregation of lunch counters. Other demands have reflected particular political or cultural concerns—such as the call for universities to divest from companies that profit from the apartheid regime in South Africa.