Supreme Court Declines Cases on Student Internet Speech

Blog post 3
In response to the following:
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/school_law/2012/01/supreme_court_declines_cases_o.html

By Mark Walsh on January 17, 2012 10:42 AM

“Kara Kowalski was a student at Musselman High School, in Berkeley County, W.Va., in 2005 when she created a MySpace page that suggested another female student had herpes. School officials concluded that Kowalski had created a "hate" website in violation of school policies against harassment, bullying, and intimidation. She was suspended from school for five days and given a "social suspension" of 90 days, meaning she was barred from certain school activities, including the cheerleading squad.

Kowalski sued under the First Amendment, but both a federal district court and a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, in Richmond, Va., upheld school administrators. The 4th Circuit said in a July 2011 decision that "school administrators are becoming increasingly alarmed by the phenomenon" of harassment and bullying, and that "where such speech has a sufficient nexus with the school, the Constitution is not written to hinder school administrators' good faith efforts to address the problem."

In her appeal to the Supreme Court, Kowalski said, "This court has never addressed the appropriate First Amendment test for student speech that occurs entirely off school premises."

I always find cases like this really interesting because there are probably many cases similar to these situations.  How far is too far? With the freedom of the internet, school administrators must find these cases very difficult.  If a school cannot punish based on these inappropriate postings, what can they do?  Being a school counselor, I’ve come across many misuses on the internet by students.  Even though some parents are monitoring daily what their child is doing on the internet, sometimes the parents are completely unaware.  Personally I don’t think it should matter if it happens off of the school premises.  We need to recognize that our actions can affect many outside of our little bubble, and more importantly, we need to help students understand that concept.  Sometimes there is an empty courage created by putting something on the internet.  Many people write things that they would never say to a person’s face.  Either way, it’s wrong.