The latest Street Law presentation on students’ legal and constitutional rights drew a small crowd — and a barrage of questions including the rights of students to free expression, religion, due process, privacy and search and seizure.

The event, which took place on Oct. 17, was the second of the public forums sponsored by the Todd Beamer High School Street Law class. The first forum featured a viewing of the movie, “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” along with discussions on current events and the Federalist papers 9 and 10.

This time, it was a panel of law experts answering questions from students.

The panel consisted of ACLU lawyer Rose Spidell, Federal Way School District lawyer Lynette Baisch and Supreme Court Justice Richard Sanders.

“There is a difference between students and adults,” Spidell said. “It changes when students enter the school gates. The learning environment trumps student rights.”

The speakers also cited past cases to back up their opinions. Spidell used Tinker vs. Des Moines in her opinion on freedom of expression. In that case, students who wore black arm bands to school to protest the Vietnam War were suspended. The case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which found that students don’t lose their rights, they are just different in a school setting and that students could not disrupt the learning environment. However, the arm bands were ruled acceptable because they were silent and a form of constitutionally protected symbolic speech.

There were also cases discussed that were closer to home, including a case in Everett that fell both under the freedom of speech and religion sections of discussion. In that case, the school nixed the performance of “Ave Maria” during the graduation ceremony. The piece was only musical number; however, Superintendent Carol Whitehead said it was too religious in connotation. In the end, the case went to the 9th circuit of appeals, which said it was OK to play the song, as long as others were played as well.

“I don’t think that’s fair, but apparently that’s the law,” Sanders said. Sanders again brought up the issue during the religious section.

“It’s my sense schools kind of go overboard when chasing religion out of school,” he said. “The truth is they have discretion in these cases. If ‘Ave Maria’ would have played, they probably would have been sued then, and they probably would have won that.”

The class is funded through a grant from the Washington State Bar Association’s Council on Public Legal Education, the Washington Judges Foundation and with help from Judge Dave Larson of the Federal Way Municipal Court.

They will have more public forums as the class continues.