claim that his assignment of an examination grade or a final grade is communication protected by the First Amendment. As does any communicative act, assigning a letter grade sends a message to the recipient. The message communicated by the letter grade “A” is virtually indistinguishable from the message communicated by a formal written evaluation indicating “excellent work.” Both communicative acts represent symbols that transmit a unique message. Because the assignment of a letter grade is symbolic communication intended to send a specific message to the student, the individual professor’s communicative act is entitled to some measure of First Amendment protection. Cf. Tinker v. Des Moines Indep. Community School Dist., 393 U.S. 503, 505-06, 89 S.Ct. 733, 735-36, 21 L.Ed.2d 731 (1969) (<HOLDING>); Brown v. Louisiana, 383 U.S. 131, 141-42, 86
holding that raising chickens is not an expressive act for the purposes of the first amendment holding that a public school may not without evidence  of substantial disruption punish students for wearing armbands protesting the vietnam war holding that students action wearing black armbands was expressive conduct entitled to first amendment protection holding that wearing black armband to school to protest vietnam war was expressive conduct holding that participating in community service is not expressive conduct