Student & Youth Rights

In school, young people not only learn about their constitutional rights but also see firsthand how those rights may be affected by the actions of others. The ACLU of Utah is dedicated to protecting students' constitutional rights and helping them understand their rights in school.

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In school, young people not only learn about their constitutional rights but also see firsthand how those rights may be affected by the actions of others. The ACLU of Utah is dedicated to protecting students' constitutional rights and helping them understand their rights in school.

Know Your Rights

(Updated March 2018)

Utah Students! Know Your Rights: A Guide for Utah Public High School Students

You'll discover what you need to know about:

  • Your Right to an Education
  • Freedom of Speech & Expression Religious Freedom
  • Search and Seizure
  • Discrimination
  • Discipline Student Records
  • Military Recruitment

View The Guide

Students' Rights: Speech, walkouts, and other protests

A resource from National ACLU. If you're a public school student, you don't check your constitutional rights at the schoolhouse doors. But whether schools can punish you for speaking out depends on when, where, and how you decide to express yourself. That's why it's essential that everyone — especially students and allies — learns about students' rights.

View the Resource

Complete ACLU of Utah Know Your Rights Resources

We have many free resources that can answer any questions about what behavior is acceptable in certain situations. Click the button below for a complete "Know Your Rights" Guides and other information that can educate you about what rights you have in certain situations.

View the Lists of Guides

The Latest

Podcast
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Books Being Banned

ACLU of Massachusetts featured our case, Vonnegut v. Utah, on their podcast Civil Liberities Minute. Listen now.
Press Release
graphic for back to school showing a student arms holding up a book next to a stack of books.

Vonnegut Estate, Authors, and Student Plaintiffs Take Utah to Court Over the Freedom to Read

In Vonnegut v. Utah, plaintiffs argue that portions of HB29 (Sensitive Material Review Law) are unconstitutionally overbroad in violation of the First Amendment.
Issue Areas: First Amendment, Student & Youth Rights
Know Your Rights
students on campus with speech bubbles.

Immigrant and Refugee Students in Public Schools

School should be safe for everyone. Learn about the rights that protect immigrant and refugee students—and how to protect yourself and those you care about.
Know Your Rights
Kids walking with backpacks

Estudiantes Inmigrantes y Refugiados en Escuelas Públicas

La escuela debe ser un lugar seguro para todas y todos. Infórmate sobre los derechos que protegen a estudiantes inmigrantes y refugiados, y aprende cómo protegerte a ti y a las personas que te importan.
Court Case
Jan 06, 2026

Vonnegut v. Utah

The American Civil Liberties Union of Utah Foundation, Inc. (ACLU of Utah), alongside law firms Parr Brown Gee & Loveless and Spencer Fane, LLC, filed a lawsuit in United States District Court for the District of Utah on behalf of the Estate of Kurt Vonnegut, award-winning authors Elana K. Arnold, Ellen Hopkins, and Amy Reed, and two anonymous Utah public high school students. By disregarding the literary value of age-appropriate books and removing them, Utah is trampling on the protections guaranteed by the First Amendment. Utah’s Sensitive Materials Law, originally enacted in 2022 and amended in 2024, requires public schools and their libraries to remove a wide range of literature under unconstitutional, overbroad criteria imposed by the state legislature. Among the books removed are major award-winning and best-selling works, including Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, a National Book Award winner and one of Time Magazine’s “100 Best English-Language Novels,” and Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye. Many of the banned titles target voices that have historically been silenced, authors of color, women, and LGBTQ+ writers. These removals include Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner; Elana K. Arnold’s What Girls Are Made Of, a National Book Award finalist; and Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, a Pulitzer Prize nominee whose author received both the National Medal of Arts and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.