Speech News, Supreme Court Case

High court turns away appeals in student-speech cases

Associated Press

Wire Report
Tuesday, January 17, 2012

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court has passed up a pair of cases for the online age — whether schools may censor students who are at home when they create online attacks against school officials and other students.

The justices today turned away appeals from Pennsylvania and West Virginia involving difficult questions about the limits on criticism from students and where the authority of school officials ends.

In one case, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the suspension of a West Virginia student who created a web page suggesting another student had a sexually transmitted disease and invited classmates to comment. In the other case, the 3rd Circuit said two Pennsylvania students could not be disciplined at school for parodies of their principals that they created on home computers and posted online.

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2 Responses to “High court turns away appeals in student-speech cases”

  1. Rhys Morgan's Experience Illustrates Importance of Protecting Student Speech | Popehat says:
    January 17, 2012 at 11:33 am

    [...] media or other internet venues; just today, in a move that may or may not be significant, the Court declined to review a number of Circuit cases involving off-campus internet speech, leaving the area in [...]

    Reply
  2. Tim says:
    January 17, 2012 at 12:21 pm

    There IS a difference. The Pennsylvania case was parody, while the West Virgina case was bullying, harassment, and defamation. It seems to me that that difference is an acceptable standard for whether or not the school has an interest.

    Reply

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