## Facts

- An individual plaintiff (Virgil) sued a Florida county school board over the board’s decision to remove, restrict, or decline to use certain school materials, likely involving books or other instructional content.
- The plaintiff alleged the board’s action violated students’ First Amendment rights, and may also have asserted related Fourteenth Amendment theories.
- The school board defended its decision as an educational judgment, citing concerns typically associated with school-material decisions, such as age-appropriateness, vulgarity, sexual explicitness, or lack of pedagogical value.
- The federal district court entered judgment for the school board (likely on summary judgment or dismissal).
- The plaintiff appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

## Issues

1. Whether a public school board’s removal, restriction, or nonselection of certain school materials violated the First Amendment rights of students (and possibly parents).
2. What constitutional standard governs school-board decisions over curriculum or school library content, including the level of judicial deference owed to asserted educational reasons.
3. Whether the record supported an inference that the board acted for an impermissible purpose—suppressing disfavored ideas or viewpoints—rather than for legitimate educational concerns.

## Decision

- The Eleventh Circuit affirmed the district court’s judgment in favor of the school board.
- The court treated the challenged action as within the school board’s broad authority to manage instructional materials and student exposure to content in the school setting.
- The court concluded the plaintiff had not made a sufficient showing that the board’s decision was driven by viewpoint-based censorship, as opposed to permissible educational rationales.

## Legal Principles

- Public school boards possess substantial discretion to select, organize, and limit instructional materials in furtherance of educational objectives.
- Students retain First Amendment protections in school, but those protections are applied with sensitivity to the school environment and the board’s responsibility for education.
- A school board may consider factors such as age suitability, vulgarity, and educational relevance when choosing or limiting materials.
- A constitutional violation is most likely where the evidence shows the board’s dominant purpose was to suppress particular ideas or viewpoints; absent that showing, courts generally defer to educational judgments.

## Conclusion

The Eleventh Circuit upheld the school board’s control over disputed school materials, holding that the plaintiff failed to demonstrate unconstitutional viewpoint suppression and that the board’s asserted educational reasons fell within its discretion.


Virgil v. Sch. Bd. of Columbia Cnty., Fla., 862 F.2d 1517 (11th Cir. 1989)