Andrew Reiff (make up)

National

Summary- Appeals court weighs teen's Web speech

A teen who used vulgar slang in an Internet blog to complain about school administrators shouldn't have been punished by the school, her lawyer told a federal appeals court. But a lawyer for the Burlington, Conn., school told the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday that administrators should be allowed to act if such comments are made on the Web.
Avery Doninger, 17, claims officials at Lewis S. Mills High School violated her free speech rights when they barred her from serving on the student council because of what she wrote from her home computer. In her blog, Doninger said officials were canceling the school's annual Jamfest, which is similar to a battle of the bands contest. The event, which she helped coordinate, was rescheduled. According to the lawsuit, she wrote: "`Jamfest' is canceled due to douchebags in central office," and also referred to an administrator who was "pissed off."
After discovering the blog entry, school officials refused to allow Doninger to run for re-election as class secretary. Doninger won anyway with write-in votes, but was not allowed to serve.
A lower federal court had supported the school. U.S. District Judge Mark Kravitz, denying Doninger's request for an injunction, said he believed she could be punished for writing in a blog because the blog addressed school issues and was likely to be read by other students.
The three-judge panel of the appeals court did not issue a ruling after the arguments.
In 1969, the Supreme Court said schools could ban expression if they can show that not doing so would interfere with schoolwork or discipline. In a later ruling, it allowed officials to bar "vulgar and lewd" speech if it would undermine the school's educational mission. But both cases involved events that occurred on school property or during a school activity.

Opinion- This one's going to get overturned. I think it is one of the first cases to ever deal with a student's right to free speech over the Internet. This girl has the right to write (ha ha) whatever she wants online, because there is no way that the school can regulate that. It is outside of the school grounds, and the administrators of the school cannot regulate speech outside of school. I think that it is a cut-and-dry reversal, if not the appeals court then definently the Supreme Court. Good for this girl by the way, for winning on write-in votes. Besides the language she used wasn't really that bad. Vulgar, yes, bad, no. Most teenagers talk that way nowadays. Deal with it.