Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech.
There it is verbatim, minus ‘the claptrap’, which would be modern case law to others.
The Principal was wrong. Period. As written, you can actually shout ‘fire’ in a burning building, but that seemed recklessly dangerous and arbitrary.
To recap - the Principal was wrong, should apologize, and should know the law a bit better before he goes ordering students to ‘shed clothing’.
Congress did not make any law so abridging free speech. This was a Principal making a judgment he had ever necessity of office to make. The first necessity of learning is order. Only the Principal can make that decision, he or she is there, day after day and knows the students and the community in situ. It’s really not a reviewable decision. It’s like the judgment of s Ship’s Captain — the default assumption is the Captain’s judgment may not be reviewed, excepting the most egregious of occurrences and then only by fellow captains experienced and proven in the art of being the master of a ship.
The concept that the master of a school has full authority in the matter of maintaining good order and discipline was known and accepted by all until the socially deconstructionist 60’s.
You want free speech? Though experiment: Go to work tomorrow wearing a Button that say “F*k The Boss”. What will happen? Second experiment button says “I do not like my Boss”. What happens? Reasonable? Foreseeable?
In 1969, the Supreme Court took a wrong turn — they made the courts the decider of what was a “reasonable” judgment to maintain school discipline. What has happened in American schools since? Have they gotten better?