Free speech and social media

     With a predominantly conservative U.S. Supreme Court, an 8-1 ruling last week sided with a female high school student in her First Amendment rights.

     Brandi Levy of Pennsylvania sent out an offensive and vulgar SnapChat to 250 of her followers after failing to qualify for her school’s varsity cheerleading team. The message was sent off school grounds while parked at a local convenience store.

     While SnapChat posts disappear after 24 hours, one of Brandi’s peers took a screenshot of her inappropriate post and showed it to school officials, including the cheerleading coach. Brandi was suspended from the junior varsity cheer squad for a full year due to her negative demeanor.

     Brandi and her family ended up suing the school, saying they had no recourse in kicking her off the team due to something she posted on social media away from school grounds. It appears the Supreme Court agreed, saying public schools do not have the power to punish a student for what is said or shared off-campus.

     This ruling brings a 52-year-old ruling to light, involving Iowa… In 1969 the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a high school student from (at the time) Des Moines Independent Community School District.

     Students were told they could not wear black armbands to school, a sign of protest against the Vietnam War. The ruling stated students don’t “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the school gate.”

     This isn’t just a victory for the young woman involved, but I think a victory also for social media platforms.

     There are numerous social media platforms today. How can anyone, let alone a community school district, keep track of what students are sharing or spreading across these platforms?

     Not to wholeheartedly condone what Brandi said, which did involve some expletives, she did not post anything threatening; she did not put her school or fellow classmates in danger. Her choice of words likely was something she might verbally express, too.

     Taking social media out of the equation, if she had verbally said those same words, would Brandi be in the same boat she is today? Unfortunately social media allows for solid evidence versus just overhearing someone say something vulgar.

     Brandi’s school district fought back saying in today’s online/remote learning environment due to COVID-19, the lines are blurred when it comes to where students access their social media and what they express while doing so. (Basically, with remote learning, who’s to say what is considered on- or off-campus?) Personally, I think that argument is a bit of a stretch. Plus, this weak argument could really only ever be used in reference to the 2020 school year (perhaps into the 2021 school year). Three years from now, this reference is a moot point.

     Brandi was 14 years old at the time of this incident, showing you just how “fast” cases like this move through the justice system. Today, she’s a college student. Her comments from the Supreme Court ruling were simply put, and obvious to anyone who knows a teenager these days… “I was a 14-year-old kid expressing my feelings, and that’s how kids do it, over social media.”

     The definition of free speech and how that right is expressed has certainly changed.