A battle over the First Amendment has been brewing in Schuylkill County and now the case is slated to be heard by the U.S Supreme Court.
It all started when a Sophomore student at Mahanoy Area High School was kicked off the cheerleading squad in 2017 after posting a profanity laced message on the social media platform Snapchat. At the time of the incident, the student was a minor. Later that year, the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania filed a suit against the district on behalf of the student
"We felt like it violated the first amendment. So, we took this case.” Sara Rose, a senior staff attorney for the ACLU-PA, told 69 News.
Rose describes the student's post as a harmless, fleeting expression of frustration. The post centered around the student's dismay at not making the varsity cheerleading squad.
The school district argues the line between on and off campus speech is arbitrary in the age of social media, when students can disrupt the school community from anywhere with the touch of a button.
But, in 2019 the third circuit court sided with the ACLU of Pennsylvania and the student. The court granted the student a summary judgement and found the school didn't have the authority to discipline her for off campus speech and therefore violated her first amendment right.
Rose said it would do a real harm to students' ability to freely communicate with peers if they had to be worried the school district is always looking over their shoulder and punishing them. She added, “It would be a real shame to chill them or make them afraid to communicate with their friends the only way that's available to them right now.”
But, on Friday the Supreme Court announced it would hear the case after the school district appealed the lower court's decision. The district claims the third circuit court ruling creates a grey area and makes it unclear if schools can regulate, among other things, racist, vulgar, or sexually harassing speech that occurs online and off campus.
“It’s a very different kind of speech we’re talking about here in this case,” Rose says. She notes the third circuit court specifically said they were not going to address speech that poses a threat of violence, or is harassing or bullying of other students because that's not the type of speech at issue in this case.
“We’re not saying that schools have no ability to discipline students or take some sort of action when you’re talking about speech that presents a real harm to the school community,” Rose says. "When you're talking about speech that expresses an opinion or expresses frustration and is like the speech here that causes no disruption whatsoever to the school, schools don't have authority to punish that. Their authority is limited just like all government authority is limited.”
The case is expected to be heard in front of the Supreme Court in April.
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January 09, 2021 at 09:32PM
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U.S. Supreme Court to hear free speech case involving Schuylkill County student - 69News WFMZ-TV
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