
Student Free Speech Examined by U.S. Supreme Court Case
Jun 24, 2021
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with Ruling that Although Public Schools May Have a Special Interest in Regulating Off-Campus Speech the Mahanoy Area School District Could Not Overcome A Student’s First Amendment Protections In this Case
On June 23, 2021, the Supreme Court decided that suspension of a student from a school district’s junior varsity cheerleading team based upon two Snapchat stories posted by the student was improper under the First Amendment. B.L., a high school student, had tried out for both varsity cheerleading and a private softball team. B.L. did not make the varsity cheerleading team and did not get the specific position for which she tried out on the softball team. . The Court opined that “B.L. did not accept the coach’s decision with good grace…,” and that weekend used her smartphone to post two separate stories to Snapchat, a social media platform.