C Which statement best describes how student speech rights have evolved in the United States? The largest changes to the student free speech rights happened in the 1800s. Decided in the 1980s, the Tinker decision scaled back student speech rights for the first time in 20 years. While the Tinker decision firmly described student speech rights, a handful of later decisions limited those rights. Students across the nation today enjoy more rights to publish controversial content than any previous era.