Pennsylvania School District Asks Supreme Court To Allow It To Continue To Violate Students' First …

from the who’s-being-disruptive-now dept The Mahanoy Area School District of Pennsylvania, which currently serves 11,000 residents and 1,100 students — wants to keep wasting local and federal tax dollars defending its decision to infringe on the free speech rights of students. In 2019, the district was sued by “B.L.,” a student whose f-bomb laden Snapchat message was reported to school officials. Using the vernacular of high school students, B.L. expressed her displeasure with things that often displeased students. fuck school fuck softball fuck cheer fuck everything As a result of a snitch within the cheer team’s midst, B.L. was booted from the cheerleading roster and suspended by the school. But the Snapchat selfie with the f-words was taken while B.L. was off campus and after school hours. It made no difference to the school, which felt it had the right to punish B.L. for any expression regarding school activities. In support, it pointed to the “agreement” B.L. had signed when she signed up for cheerleading, forbidding the creation of any “negative information” about the school while participating in extracurricular activities. The district court said the school went too far, extending its control of students’ speech past the confines of the…
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