logo
Weather page
GET THE APP
ePaper
google_play
app_store
  • Login
  • E-Edition
  • News
  • Sports
  • Obituaries
  • Opinion
  • Classifieds
    • Place an Ad
    • All Listings
    • Jobs
  • Special Sections
  • Photo Gallery
  • Contests
  • Lifestyle/Entertainment
  • Games
    • News
      • Local News
      • PA State News
      • Nation/World
    • Sports
      • Local
      • College Sports
      • State
      • National
    • Obituaries
    • Opinion
      • News
        • Local News
        • PA State News
        • Nation/World
      • Sports
        • Local
        • College Sports
        • State
        • National
      • Obituaries
      • Opinion
    logo
    • Classifieds
      • Place an Ad
      • All Listings
      • Jobs
    • E-Edition
    • Subscribe
    • Login
      • Classifieds
        • Place an Ad
        • All Listings
        • Jobs
      • E-Edition
      • Subscribe
      • Login
    Home Opinion Schools shouldn't police students' social media posts
    Schools shouldn’t police students’ social media posts
    Editorials
    January 12, 2021

    Schools shouldn’t police students’ social media posts

    In pre-internet America, there was a clear division of labor between schools and parents when it came to policing children’s conduct: If a student misbehaved at school, teachers and administrators could take action. Unruly or insolent behavior at home was the parents’ responsibility.

    But now that children and teenagers can communicate with one another — and the wider world — online, some schools have disciplined students for what they say in cyberspace. In what could become a major First Amendment case, a school district in Pennsylvania has asked the Supreme Court to review a lower court decision that put limits on what schools can do in such situations.

    If the court takes the case, it should be careful in any ruling not to obliterate the distinction between in-school and out-of-school speech — except in the rarest of circumstances.

    This case originated in a teenager’s disappointment. In 2017, a student at Mahanoy Area High School was frustrated when she failed to make the varsity cheerleading team.

    In an earlier era, the student, referred to in court filings as B.L., probably would have vented to her friends in person or on the telephone. Instead, while spending time with a friend at a local store, she took a photo of herself and her friend raising their middle fingers and posted it on Snapchat for some 250 friends to see briefly. (The app is designed to delete messages once they’re seen.) An accompanying caption used a vulgarity to denounce the school, the cheerleading squad and “everything.”

    After a screenshot of her “snap” was shown to her cheerleading coaches, they suspended her from the junior varsity team saying that she had violated rules requiring cheerleaders to respect their school, coaches and other cheerleaders and to avoid foul language.

    B.L. sued the Mahanoy Area School District, claiming that it had violated her rights to free speech. The U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in her favor. Writing for two members of a three-judge panel, Judge Cheryl Ann Krause agreed with a lower court that the school district violated B.L.’s rights when it punished her for her vulgar rant.

    The notion that students in public schools have free speech rights isn’t new. In a landmark 1969 decision, the Supreme Court declared that students in public schools don’t leave their free speech rights at the “schoolhouse gate.”

    That ruling involved students who wore black armbands to school to protest the Vietnam War — obviously a matter of greater public concern than the composition of a cheerleading squad. But the Supreme Court has held that students’ free speech rights extend to all aspects of “the process of attending school.”

    The appeals court’s more provocative conclusion was that B.L. couldn’t be punished for her snap because it was “off-campus speech — that is, speech that is outside school-owned, -operated, or -supervised channels and that is not reasonably interpreted as bearing the school’s imprimatur.”

    The school district warned the Supreme Court that the appeals court’s ruling would threaten “unnecessary chaos” and argued that “social media has made it far easier for students’ off-campus messages to instantly reach a wide audience of classmates and dominate the on campus environment.” (It added that limits on schools’ authority to punish online speech would be especially challenging during the COVID-19 pandemic, when schools have shifted to online instruction. But that is a temporary situation.)

    We worry that if the Supreme Court does agree to hear this case, it might use it to further scale back the protections for student free speech it established in 1969. But if the court agrees to decide the case, it should not obliterate the distinction between the school environment and what students say and do on their own time.

    We admit that there might be exceptions. In holding that schools may not punish students for off-campus speech, Krause noted that this case didn’t involve “off-campus student speech threatening violence or harassing particular students or teachers.”

    Schools ought to be able to react to such extreme situations, and to online speech that poses a danger of what the Supreme Court in its 1969 ruling called “substantial disruption of or material interference with school activities.” (A third judge on the 3rd Circuit panel suggested that B.L. should prevail because her snap didn’t pose a risk of such disruption.)

    As a general rule, however, teachers, coaches and administrators shouldn’t be overseers of their students’ online lives. They have more important responsibilities than scrutinizing Snapchats.

    — Los Angeles Times/ TNS

    Tags:

    appeals court circuit court of appeals coach law lower court school squad supreme court
    By Marcie

    The Bradford Era

    Local & Social
    Latest news for you
    ‘Round the Square: Skywalk reopens Aug. 8
    Round the Square
    ‘Round the Square: Skywalk reopens Aug. 8
    July 8, 2025
    SKYWALK: Aug. 8. That's the date when the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources reopens the Kinzua Skywalk for the fall season. The Kinzua ...
    Read More...
    BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT: Sweet’s Saltwater makes a splash
    Business, Local News
    BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT: Sweet’s Saltwater makes a splash
    By SAVANNAH BARR s.barr@bradfordera.com 
    July 8, 2025
    Whether you are a longtime aquarium enthusiast or you just learned about planted tanks and want to find out more, there is something for everyone at S...
    Read More...
    {"newsletter-daily-headlines":"Daily Headlines", "newsletters":"Newsletters", "to-print":"To print", "bradfordera-website":"Website"}
    Don’t let strawberries spoil
    Lifestyles
    Don’t let strawberries spoil
    July 8, 2025
    Dear Heloise: We love fresh strawberries at our house, but frequently a few of them spoil in the container before we can use them all. We discovered a...
    Read More...
    {"to-print":"To print", "bradfordera-website":"Website"}
    Sibling is making elderly mom’s life a living hell
    Lifestyles
    Sibling is making elderly mom’s life a living hell
    July 8, 2025
    DEAR ABBY: I live five hours away from my hometown. My mom is 98 and in assisted living there. In recent years, my younger sister has become cruel to ...
    Read More...
    {"to-print":"To print", "bradfordera-website":"Website"}
    2025 NY/PA Corporate Cup Soccer Showcase slated for July 27
    Local Sports
    2025 NY/PA Corporate Cup Soccer Showcase slated for July 27
    Jo Wankel 
    July 7, 2025
    Four soccer matches showcasing 175 of the best high school soccer players from Northwestern PA and Southwestern NY will take place on July 27 at Pitt-...
    Read More...
    Harrison Brunicke wants to be in Pittsburgh, but the Penguins say he must earn his place first
    National Sports
    Harrison Brunicke wants to be in Pittsburgh, but the Penguins say he must earn his place first
    Matt Vensel Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 
    July 7, 2025
    (TNS) —This time last summer, Harrison Brunicke was a lesser-known Penguins prospect who arrived at his first development camp eager to learn and get ...
    Read More...
    {"to-print":"To print", "bradfordera-website":"Website"}
    ePaper
    google_play
    app_store
    This Week's Ads
    Current e-Edition
    ePaper
    google_play
    app_store
    Already a subscriber? Click the image to view the latest e-edition.
    Don't have a subscription? Click here to see our subscription options.
    Mobile App

    Download Now

    The Bradford Era mobile app brings you the latest local breaking news, updates, and more. Read the Bradford Era on your mobile device just as it appears in print.

    ePaper
    google_play
    app_store

    Help Our Community

    Please help local businesses by taking an online survey to help us navigate through these unprecedented times. None of the responses will be shared or used for any other purpose except to better serve our community. The survey is at: www.pulsepoll.com $1,000 is being awarded. Everyone completing the survey will be able to enter a contest to Win as our way of saying, "Thank You" for your time. Thank You!

    Get in touch with The Bradford Era
    Submit Content
    • Submit News
    • Letter to the Editor
    • Place Wedding Announcement
      • Submit News
      • Letter to the Editor
      • Place Wedding Announcement
    Advertise
    • Place Birth Announcement
    • Place Anniversary Announcement
    • Place Obituary Call (814) 368-3173
      • Place Birth Announcement
      • Place Anniversary Announcement
      • Place Obituary Call (814) 368-3173
    Subscribe
    • Start a Subscription
    • e-Edition
    • Contact Us
      • Start a Subscription
      • e-Edition
      • Contact Us
    CMG | Community Media Group
    Illinois
    • Hancock Journal-Pilot
    • Iroquois Times-Republic
    • Journal-Republican
    • The News-Gazette
      • Hancock Journal-Pilot
      • Iroquois Times-Republic
      • Journal-Republican
      • The News-Gazette
    Indiana
    • Fountain Co. Neighbor
    • Herald Journal
    • KV Post News
    • Newton Co. Enterprise
    • Rensselaer Republican
    • Review-Republican
      • Fountain Co. Neighbor
      • Herald Journal
      • KV Post News
      • Newton Co. Enterprise
      • Rensselaer Republican
      • Review-Republican
    Iowa
    • Atlantic News Telegraph
    • Audubon Advocate-Journal
    • Barr’s Post Card News
    • Burlington Hawk Eye
    • Collector’s Journal
    • Fayette County Union
    • Ft. Madison Daily Democrat
    • Independence Bulletin-Journal
    • Keokuk Daily Gate City
    • Oelwein Daily Register
    • Vinton Newspapers
    • Waverly Newspapers
      • Atlantic News Telegraph
      • Audubon Advocate-Journal
      • Barr’s Post Card News
      • Burlington Hawk Eye
      • Collector’s Journal
      • Fayette County Union
      • Ft. Madison Daily Democrat
      • Independence Bulletin-Journal
      • Keokuk Daily Gate City
      • Oelwein Daily Register
      • Vinton Newspapers
      • Waverly Newspapers
    Michigan
    • Iosco County News-Herald
    • Ludington Daily News
    • Oceana’s Herald-Journal
    • Oscoda Press
    • White Lake Beacon
      • Iosco County News-Herald
      • Ludington Daily News
      • Oceana’s Herald-Journal
      • Oscoda Press
      • White Lake Beacon
    New York
    • Finger Lakes Times
    • Olean Times Herald
    • Salamanca Press
      • Finger Lakes Times
      • Olean Times Herald
      • Salamanca Press
    Pennsylvania
    • Bradford Era
    • Clearfield Progress
    • Courier Express
    • Free Press Courier
    • Jeffersonian Democrat
    • Leader Vindicator
    • Potter Leader-Enterprise
    • The Wellsboro Gazette
      • Bradford Era
      • Clearfield Progress
      • Courier Express
      • Free Press Courier
      • Jeffersonian Democrat
      • Leader Vindicator
      • Potter Leader-Enterprise
      • The Wellsboro Gazette
    © Copyright The Bradford Era 43 Main St, Bradford, PA  | Terms of Use  | Privacy Policy
    Powered by TECNAVIA