Hardly a week passes without yet another highly visible court case involving the rights and freedoms of secondary school students. The subject matter of these lawsuits is as varied as the activities of the students who have gone to court to vindicate their legal interests. The outcome of such cases also runs the gamut; some student plaintiffs (and the parents who have typically intervened on their behalf) have prevailed decisively, while other litigants--who seemed no less deserving of legal redress--have met far less enviable fate in the courts. To some degree, such variations in the legal landscape may reflect differences between federal appellate courts; some circuits are simply more receptive than others to the pleas of students whose speech or creative activity has been suppressed. Yet despite such contrasts, pervasive patterns among legal disputes within and beyond the classroom persist in ways that defy easy or familiar classification. In this article, the author reviews legal decisions related to student freedom, noting that many contemporary speech issues involving student use of computers, cellular phones, and other available technologies are just emerging. (Contains 15 notes.)