R&I – FS
Facing its biggest student speech case in a half century, the Supreme Court seemed to be looking for a narrow exit door on Wednesday.
At issue was whether schools may punish students for speech that occurs online and off campus but may affect school order.
The case has been billed as the most important student speech case since 1969. That landmark ruling came at the height of the Vietnam War. Mary Beth Tinker and four other students went to court after they were suspended for wearing black armbands to school to protest the war.
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Wednesday’s case did not involve such serious speech. It was brought by Brandi Levy, a 14-year-old high school cheerleader, who failed to win a promotion from the junior varsity cheer team to the varsity.
“I was really upset and frustrated at everything,” Levy explained in an NPR interview. So, that weekend, she posted a photo of herself and a friend flipping the bird to the camera, with the caption “F*** school F*** softball, F*** cheer, F*** everything.”
Brandi’s post hit school like a small town, social media bomb; the school deemed the post disruptive to cheerleader morale and suspended her from the team for the rest of the year. The ACLU took her case to court, claiming that her free speech rights had been violated. And on Wednesday, the Supreme Court faced a question that did not exist in 1969: Can schools punish students for their online but off campus speech?
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Article URL : https://www.npr.org/2021/04/28/991683886/frightened-to-death-cheerleader-speech-case-gives-supreme-court-pause