The Supreme Court is passing, for now, on major appeals involving free speech on the Internet. Two of the cases that were up for review involved social networking page parodies of school officials done off campus and were upheld by a lower court as no violation of the administrators rights. Another case, where a social networking page by a student created off campus suggested that another female student had herpes, which resulted in the creator being suspended, was upheld in the administrator’s favor. It is concerning because there is very little jurisprudence to guide both the courts and school administrators on what to do about the increase in questionable, and often harmful, student expression online. The only precedent is a 1969 Supreme Court ruling holding that student expression may not be suppressed unless school officials reasonably conclude that it would “materially and substantially disrupt the work and discipline of the school.” In that landmark case, the Supreme Court said students had a First Amendment right to wear black armbands on campus to protest the Vietnam War.
Message to your kids: The law still can go either way if you are involved in such a parody or “hate” case. Don’t expect the First Amendment to protect you.
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