Paying a price for free speech?

Evan Raffel

In recent weeks it has been brought to my attention of an event that occurred at the Academy. I was very upset about the way it was handled. Although the punished were in fault, their punishments were not only wrong, but illegal.

Obviously, the issue I’m referencing to is the punishment of those involved in the posting at a forum on the internet. The students were accused of making inappropriate statements about teachers and other students. The site was viewed by administration and they took what they felt was appropriate action.

My goal in this article is not to defend the statements of the students. I in no way support the use of the internet to insult people, even as I am guilty of such. My goal however, is to express my opinions on the way administration handled the situation.

The issue of freedom of speech on the internet has become very controversial in the past decade, as the use of the internet has become ridiculously popular. The Supreme Court in Washington D.C. has yet to make a decision on what rights we truly have. However, such an issue as what occurred in the Academy has come to court several times. I’d just like to examine what has happened in comparison with what the courts have decided.

O'Brien v. Westlake City Schools of Education was a case seen by a district court. The case involved a student suing the district following a ten day suspension. He was suspended following the schools viewing of his site critical of a teacher. The student filed suit on the grounds of a first amendment violation. The school settled with a $30,000 settlement, expunging of the suspension from all records, and a letter of apology.

This is one of many cases in which the courts decided that the first amendment applied to the websites. They make an important point that the regulation of free speech by schools just do not extend “beyond their doors”, despite the speech’s content.

Again in Beussink v. Woodland R-IV Sch. Dist it was found that the student was being violated of his first amendment rights after the posting of a website resulted in his suspension. Not only was the school required to refrain from the use of the suspension in grade and attendance calculations, but it was barred from punishing or restricting the student from posting on the web again. The Judge who delivered the opinion said that "disliking or being upset by the content of a student’s speech is not an acceptable justification for limiting student speech."

So my case remains the same. Did the Academy administration really have the right to punish those who did wrong? They performed their misdoings outside of school, in a medium that did not belong to the school. Can the school really punish the students, without showing a lack of appreciation for freedom of speech?