In this blog post, a Florida case in which a student created a Facebook group criticizing a teacher is discussed. The court ruled that the groups was protected by the 1st amendment and the group did not cause disruption on-campus.
This case is relevant not just because most of us use Facebook, but also because it brings up a relatively new question about protected speech on the internet. How much should online speech be protected? Should there be a different standard for students, even if it the speech is not committed on campus? The blog discusses the precedent of Tinker v. Des Moines, but also notes that there has been no Supreme Court precedent for online, off-campus student speech.
It would be interesting to see an online student speech case reach the Supreme Court. On one side, freedom of speech is considered one of the fundamental freedoms that is observed with the strictest level of scrutiny. Students using online methods to post speech off-campus should have the rights to speech given to citizens in the cases we've studied. On the other hand, student speech has been more limited by the possibility of starting a disruption. In a similar case discussed in the blog the opposite outcome was reached. The punishment of a student who created a fake Myspace page for the principal was upheld since the profile caused students to focus on the profile rather than learning thus classifying the student's actions as a disruption to the classroom. How the Supreme Court would balance those conflicting values in an off-campus, online setting, and whether a new test would be created to judge the constitutionality of student speech online would be .
How do you think a Supreme Court case involving online student speech would play out? Should online speech be protected for students?
