Supreme Court to schools: Take care with First Amendment
This ruling and the opinions of the Supreme Court show that a school corporation cannot legally shut down a parents or students 1st Admendment rights by choice.
They cannot send a document to parents restricting things given to them by the Constitution and backed up by the SCOTUS itself.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday turned down appeals from two Pennsylvania school districts that were successfully sued by students who posted on the Internet malicious mockeries of their school principals. The court’s action puts school officials on notice they may violate the First Amendment if they try to discipline students for online posts made from their home computers. Last year, the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that school officials cannot police “off-campus speech” by students unless they can show it caused a major disruption at school. Based on that standard, the appeals court upheld free-speech lawsuits by the students over profiles of their principal that one judge called “lewd and vile.” In one case, an eighth-grade girl posted a mock profile of her principal with his photo that called him a “sex addict” who enjoyed “hitting on students” on his office. In a second, a high school senior from western Pennsylvania profiled his principal on MySpace as a drug user, a “big fag” and a “big whore.” After the students were briefly suspended, they and their parents sued the school districts, citing the First Amendment. - See more at: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2012/01/supreme-court-schools-first-amendment.html#sthash.n1UNsEQs.dpuf
They cannot send a document to parents restricting things given to them by the Constitution and backed up by the SCOTUS itself.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday turned down appeals from two Pennsylvania school districts that were successfully sued by students who posted on the Internet malicious mockeries of their school principals. The court’s action puts school officials on notice they may violate the First Amendment if they try to discipline students for online posts made from their home computers. Last year, the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that school officials cannot police “off-campus speech” by students unless they can show it caused a major disruption at school. Based on that standard, the appeals court upheld free-speech lawsuits by the students over profiles of their principal that one judge called “lewd and vile.” In one case, an eighth-grade girl posted a mock profile of her principal with his photo that called him a “sex addict” who enjoyed “hitting on students” on his office. In a second, a high school senior from western Pennsylvania profiled his principal on MySpace as a drug user, a “big fag” and a “big whore.” After the students were briefly suspended, they and their parents sued the school districts, citing the First Amendment. - See more at: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2012/01/supreme-court-schools-first-amendment.html#sthash.n1UNsEQs.dpuf
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