The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in favor of the free speech rights of students, siding with a high school student whose vulgar social media post got her kicked off a cheerleading squad.
The Associated Press reports that the court voted 8-1 in favor of Brandi Levy, who was a 14-year-old freshman at Mahanoy Area High School when she expressed her disappointment over not making the varsity cheerleading team with a string of curse words and a raised middle finger on Snapchat.
Levy, of Mahanoy City, Pa., was not at school when she made her post, but she was suspended from cheerleading activities for a year anyway. In an opinion by Justice Stephen Breyer, the high court ruled that the suspension violated Levy’s First Amendment freedom of speech rights. Justice Clarence Thomas dissented, noting he would have upheld the suspension.
The justices did not foreclose schools from disciplining students for what they say off campus, though they did not spell out when schools could act.
Despite ruling in Levy’s favor, Breyer wrote that “we do not believe the special characteristics that give schools additional license to regulate student speech always disappear when a school regulates speech that takes place off campus. The school’s regulatory interests remain significant in some off-campus circumstances.”
Both sides in the case found reason to be pleased with the Supreme Court decision.
Levy said she was gratified that the court felt the school's punishment was excessive.
“The school went too far, and I’m glad that the Supreme Court agrees,” Levy, now 18, said in an American Civil Liberties Union news release. “I was frustrated, I was 14 years old, and I expressed my frustration the way teenagers do today. Young people need to have the ability to express themselves without worrying about being punished when they get to school.
The Mahanoy Area School District said that it was "pleased with and vindicated by" the decision, which found that schools could regulate some off-campus student speech.
