Web Sites, Student

As the Internet has grown, situations in which students have been disciplined for the content of their personal Web sites have increased. Disciplining students for Web pages is a subset of disciplining students for out-of-school conduct. Students have constitutional rights, but these rights are not coextensive with the rights of adults. Also, schools have much [Page 888]greater latitude in disciplining students for at-school conduct than they have for off-campus conduct.

Most school boards now require students and/or their parents to sign acceptable use agreements. When students using school computers violate the terms and conditions of such agreements, they can be disciplined by school officials. Students may maintain Web sites that are purely personal, or they may host blog-ging sites that allow others to post comments. In ...