Can Schools discipline students for speech?

 Can schools discipline students for speech?

 

Lots of students have been suspended and/or otherwise disciplined for using inappropriate language in school.  But what happens when the kids do that online or in the community?  Believe it or not, the Supreme Court weighed in on the issue back in 1969 with a very landmark case called Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District.   Back then the issue was the kids wanted to wear black arm bands in school protesting the Viet Nam war.  The school district refused to allow the kids to wear the armbands.  The case went all the way to the Supreme Court.  The Court’s decision was sort of split.  On the one hand the students had a first amendment right to free speech.  On the other hand the school administration had the right to suppress any speech that would disrupt the work and the discipline of the school.  And that has been the reason used by schools for many years to control student speech.

Over the years since then, there have been many cases  that have further narrowed students’ free speech rights.

Of course, the internet both broadens and amplifies an individual’s speech while at the same time increasing opportunities to disrupt the school.

This latest case began in 2017 and is just now getting to the Supreme Court.  A student  was angry at being moved to the JV cheerleading squad from the varsity squad.  Over the weekend she posted vulgar language about the school, the cheer team and “everything to do with this school” on Snapchat.  As a consequence, she was even removed from the JV team.  Her parents sued alleging that her removal from the JV squad was a violation of her free-speech rights and that the school’s rules were overbroad.  In a federal district court decision this past summer, the court ruled that school had overstepped in its “coercive power” and that Tinker does not apply to off-campus speech.

There really are a couple of issues here, even though this particular district court ruled in favor of the student’s free speech allegation, five other federal district courts have ruled that Tinker CAN be applied to student off-campus speech when there is a sufficient connection to the school.

Hence the Supreme Court is now involved.  

But, however, the Court rules, there is really another issue here.  The young woman who used the vulgar language on Snapchat was behaving in a crude and vulgar manner when expressing her disappointment about not making the varsity team.  Rather than allowing her to have consequences for this behavior, her parents leapt to her defense and did, literally, make a “federal” case out of it.  Is that what parents should be teaching their kids?   Behave crudely, inappropriately, as a way to manage your disappointment?  Not to worry, we will defend your right to misbehave.  Perhaps in terms of child rearing, this court fight might not be for the greater good.