Web Sites, Student

Free Speech

With a few notable exceptions, courts have come down on the side of the speech rights of students. Many of the disputes have been resolved out of court. Reported settlements on cases can be very expensive. Courts are reluctant to expand the authority of school officials to control off-campus conduct of students. In fact, educators fail in their attempts to impose discipline unless they can show the existence of a true threat and/or material and substantial disruption of school or interference with the rights of others. Courts will apply community standards when it comes to obscenity.

Buessink v. Woodland R-IV School District (1998) involved a Web site in which a student used vulgar language that was directed toward teachers, the principal, and the school's home page. After a friend saw the Web site at the plaintiff student's home, the student reported it to a teacher, who allowed other students to view the site. The court issued an injunction in favor of the student because there was no substantial disruption of school.

In Killion v. Franklin Regional School District (2001), a student wrote an e-mail that lampooned the school's athletic director, including comments about the teacher's eating habits and the size of his genitalia. The speech caused no disruption at school. A federal trial court decided that school officials did not have the authority to regulate such speech just because they disliked what the student had to say. In addition, the court was of the view that school officials have much less authority to limit lewd and vulgar speech when it occurs outside of a school setting.

Coy v. Board of Education of North Canton City Schools (2002) raises an issue that commonly appears in these cases, namely, whether school disciplinary policies are vague and overbroad. Often, courts will find that the use of imprecise terms and definitions restricts the free speech rights of students. At trial, students must seek to show that they were disciplined for the content of their speech. At the same time, boards must attempt to prove that they disciplined students for breaches of acceptable use policy because they accessed a home page from a school computer.

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