This article provides some strategies to alleviate the current tensions between personal responsibility and freedom of speech rights in the public school classroom. The article advocates the necessity of making sure students understand the points and implications of the first amendment by providing a mock trial unit concerning free speech rights. This unit not only teaches the rules of civility in a courtroom, it also presents a free speech case based upon one that actually happened in a public school classroom. Direct involvement in this case provides a safe environment for students to grapple openly with free speech limits. (Contains 1 figure and 11 notes.)