High court won't hear student Internet free speech case

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

High court won't hear student Internet free speech case

Wednesday, November 02, 2011 ANSOR No comments

By Suzanne Choney

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal involving a Connecticut high school student's use of the word "d-bags" (but spelled out) on her personal, LiveJournal blog to describe school administrators.a

The case involves Avery Doninger, who used an off-campus computer in 2007 to direct the comment at school officials and to encourage students to email the superintendent "to piss her off more." Doninger was upset because she thought the school was cancelling a musical event. It wasn't, as it turned out. And, as punishment for her remarks, school administrators banned her from running for senior class secretary.a

The high court's decision Monday to pass on the lower-court ruling means that "the justices have never squarely addressed the parameters of off-campus, online student speech," writes David Kravets on Wired's Threat Level blog.a

Thomas R. Gerarde, the attorney for school administrators, told the Hartford Courant that the high court's stance was "the right decision for this issue ... If speech disrupts the educational process it can be disciplined."a

But Jon L. Schoenhorn, lawyer for Doninger, now a college student, told the newspaper that "no school board should look at this as some kind of arbitrary restriction on Internet communication by students."a

There are still some opportunities for the Supreme Court to consider other cases involving students, the Internet and free speech. Education Week points to two other appeals pending before the high court: One involves a West Virginia high school student who created a "hate" website "in violation of school policies against harassment, bullying and intimidation," and another, that of a "Pennsylvania middle school student's MySpace parody depicting her principal as a sex addict and a pedophile."a