Message to the 187,500 students in Minnesota high schools who are old enough to register and preregister to vote TODAY

Students have rights--even in the face of school closures and federal attacks on their education--to speak out, organize and help one another register to vote.

Students deserve to feel safe in their schools. The federal government should be protecting and helping students, not bringing violence and disruption to the doorsteps of the very places that represent hope and opportunity for all.

Students also have rights grounded in the Constitution and laws of the United States and the State of Minnesota.

For example, under the First Amendment, students have the right of free speech. As the Supreme Court stated in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, students do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.” They can peacefully protest, including in their schools, in ways that do not disrupt the educational setting.

Under the federal Equal Access Act, public high schools that receive federal funds and that have student groups on campus, are prohibited from discriminating against noncurricular student groups based on the content of their speech.

In Minnesota, teens can preregister to vote beginning at age 16. Today, based on US Census data, roughly 187,500 high school students in Minnesota are old enough to either register, because they are already 18 or to preregister. That’s more than the margin of victory in the Presidential election in Minnesota in 2024, which was just 137,947.

The Minnesota Secretary of State’s office has helpful guidance on how to preregister and also has resources specially for high school students about civic engagement and elections, as well as information for all on how to hold a voter registration drive.

Schools across the city of Minneapolis are now shut down for the remainder of the week.

But students still have rights, and they deserve to feel safe and free from violence in their schools and on their streets.

They can register to vote, preregister to vote, and tell their friends to do the same. They can sign up for The Civics Center’s free training on how to hold a voter registration drive in their school. They can bring their teachers, too. They can put the ideas into action, and when they do so what it means is this:

They believe in democracy. They know their rights. They are voters. Candidates should connect with them, and elected officials should address their needs. When they speak up, they have a voice, and also they have power.