May 30, 2008
Student Internet Posts Can Lead to Sanctions, Court Rules
A new court ruling limiting a student’s speech on the Internet—though the student in question is in high school—may prove worrisome to college students and freedom-of-speech advocates.
The U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled yesterday that a Connecticut high-school student could be barred from running for student government after posting a blog entry calling a school official a “douchebag” and encouraging other students to write or call the official to annoy her, the Hartford Courant reports.
The court, in a decision on a pretrial motion, ruled that the post, on the site livejournal.com, violated the school policy that student-government representatives show “good citizenship.” The court also said the post created disruption at the school, warranting the school to take action.
College students, posting public statements or images on sites such as Facebook, are increasingly getting scrutinized by administration officials. For instance, The Chronicle reported earlier this year about a software program that searches for offensive content on college athletes’ social-networking sites. Three experts in constitutional law said the program was probably legal because publically posted material is fair game for scrutiny.
The question, of course, is how institutions react if they don’t like that material. In the Connecticut high-school case, the student is pressing ahead for a full trial, to get a clear ruling on whether schools can limit the rights to free speech in the Internet age. —Josh Fischman
Posted on Friday May 30, 2008 | Permalink |Comments
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Oh for god’s sake … this is not a legal issue.
If the school tells people not to do something, and then the student gives the school proof they have done it, it’s the students fault for being so damned dumb.
If the students break a rule, they will be punished. The school isn’t saying the person can’t make these statements, it’s saying that people who do this won’t be part of the student government.
— Eliot May 30, 02:32 PM #
I may be naive, but how do “they” know for certain that the student in question (in any question, not just this one) in fact wrote the offending remarks? Which is not even the whole issue, I realize.
— Epiphany May 30, 05:22 PM #
First Amendment does not protect against the consequences of free speech. Don’t want to suffer negative consequences from posting inappropriate material? Don’t post it!
— middleroader12 May 30, 06:23 PM #
Students should be held responsible for violating the school policies. Harassment and violence against school officials should be a crime. Students hide behind First Amendment.
— kvc May 30, 10:26 PM #
It’s cute on “South Park”, but not in real life. Grow up.
— Cynthia May 31, 01:14 AM #
If any rights have been violated here, mine have. If I have to read about another kid crying about his constitutional rights being violated I am going to hurl. I’m certain that the framers of the constitution just forgot to include special protections for use of “douchebag” by 17 year-olds.
— 35 Cent May 31, 01:31 AM #
This is total crap. Students are forced to go to school, and the schools are government run. They should allow this even if the messages were posted while /on campus/. But enforcing school rules out of school is ridiculous. They’re there to serve the students, not to control them.
— St Colin Erik Wolf VII Jun 1, 11:41 PM #
You must not be out of high school yet, with that level of argument.
Serve the students, indeed. What is the world coming to?
— Chris Jun 2, 09:38 AM #
I’ve always wondered where schools get the right of dominion over activities outside of school. Isn’t it parents’ job to police this time?
— foobar Jun 2, 10:44 AM #
It appears to me that the school is not policing students activities outside of school, but rather restricting extracurricular activities (student government) from students who can’t follow school policy- two completely separate things and not really a new phenomenon- just as coaches back in my day kicked football players off the team for drinking or attending off campus parties so today can student govt members be removed for writing harassing messages about school administrators.
— Todd Jun 2, 11:20 AM #
#5, perhaps if it were actually portrayed in the entertainment media as having consequences, the students would be bright enough not to do it. Don’t even get me started on the number of things that look OK on TV that are really, really stupid in real life.
— Old-fashioned midwesterner Jun 2, 01:51 PM #
Middleroader12, the First Amendment often does indeed protect against the consequences of free speech — when those negative consequences come from the government. And that’s exactly the case here. Are those of you who side with the school really ready to let a government entity dictate what we can say or not say on our own time while we are on the internet? This student is not accused of illegal conduct, such as underage drinking. She simply criticized school officials and now the courts are saying that it’s OK to punish her for it.
— Neil Ralston Jun 2, 02:28 PM #
So its perfectly acceptable for some tree hugging communist hippie to burn the American flag, but a student cannot post to a private domain, unaffiliated, and unconnected to the school, from the privacy of her own home, without facing retribution.
What is this world coming to.
— Rich Jun 2, 04:32 PM #
Ummm…We live in a world where Haliburton is a legitimate business while PokerStars is a criminal enterprise. We have allies who punish cannabis possession more harshly than they do rape. So I think we can stand to let people burn pieces of cloth and give students free speech.
— CommieCowboy Jun 3, 10:07 PM #
As I understand it, the school requires that those who are involved in school government show “good citizenship”. Use of offensive language is not setting a good example. In addition, she was calling for action from other students that would be disruptive to the function of the school.
As for the activity taking place “off campus”—athletes are routinely cut from teams for consuming alcohol off campus.
Actions have consequences.
— kat721 Jun 4, 10:40 AM #
I have just turned 50, and I entirely agree with the sentiments of St Colin Erik Wolf VII (comment #7), and we have plenty of company, even among grownups.
So, Chris (#8), schools aren’t meant to serve the students? Please explain how you see the relationship.
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