Teachers have the same First Amendment rights as anyone else — so long as they are not speaking as representatives of the school or in a school setting. But if they’re within school walls, or even just acting as an employee of the school, their speech can be – and often is – limited.
Author: Emily Gerston
Seeing double
For most student journalists, covering the news in Englishis challenging enough. But at a handful of schools across the country, studentsare leaping beyond expectations by publishing all or part of their publicationsin multiple languages.
Spring of discontent
College newspapers rely on advisers for guidance and support, but sometimes those advisers are in need of advice themselves. As university employees charged with ensuring students produce the highest quality work, advisers are often caught between a rock and a hard place when the threat of a sensitive story pushes them to choose sides. With a rash of adviser firings and “removals” sweeping through colleges around the country, advisers are treading carefully.
Taking it off campus
Students published what they believed to be protected speech from an off-campus location. Every time, the students were punished by their school’s administration, arguing that the students’ speech substantially interfered with the educational process. A central issue in each case: Whether the Supreme Court’s 1969 Tinker ruling, which permitted schools to punish on-campus speech if it crosses the line of causing “substantial” disruption, can be applied to off-campus speech as well.
Wis. student files second 'Boobies' bracelet lawsuit
Aftera Pennsylvania middle school made a failed attempt at banning apparel emblazonedwith the “I (Heart) Boobies” breast cancer awareness slogan, Sauk PrairieMiddle School in Wisconsin is attempting to do the same.
Appeals court upholds exclusive licenses for high school sports broadcasts
The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association’s practice of contracting coverage of live high school sports games to an exclusive broadcast partner does not violate the First or Fourteenth Amendment rights of other media, a panel from the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday.
Federal court says Nev. student’s instant messages no laughing matter
At a comedy club, a bad joke can get you booed. At school, a bad joke can get you expelled.Landon Wynar was a student at Nevada’s Douglas County High School in 2008 when he and a friend had several Internet conversations in which he discussed shooting schoolmates and compared himself to Seung-Hui Cho, the gunman behind the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre.
Court: Student's instant message a 'true threat,' disruptive
If it is “reasonably foreseeable” that students’ online conversations will reach the attention of school authorities, administrators may be able punish students for them, a three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday.
Appeals court backs school punishment for W.Va. student's MySpace group
Students can be punished at school for their Internet postings, even if made off campus, a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday.
Parents drop discrimination lawsuit with student newspaper connection
The parents of a former middle school student have dropped a discrimination lawsuit that was based in part on the family's objections to a student newspaper column.Caroline Lineen, attorney for Mahopac Central School District, said that the plaintiffs, the parents of then-middle school student “H.B.”, suddenly chose to withdraw the complaint without explanation.