No. 04-2195, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 47296 (W.D. Ark. Feb. 18, 2005)
In August 2004, two high school students in Arkansas created websites that contained violent illustrations and posts that criticized the school. School administrators claimed the sites caused a disruption at the school and ordered the students to take them down. The students sued the principal, claiming that their First Amendment rights had been violated.
In February 2005, a district court ruled that the students’ First Amendment rights were violated and that the school officials could not control the students’ websites. It opined that, when student speech was off-campus and there was no nexus to the school, the school could only discipline off-campus speech when it could meet the Tinker standard and show the sites created substantial and material disruption to the normal operation of the school.