Making distinctions between what students say on campus and off was easier in 1969, before the rise of social media. These days, most courts have allowed public schools to discipline students for social media posts so long as they are linked to school activities and threaten to disrupt them. In a concurring opinion, Judge Thomas L. Ambro wrote that he would have ruled for the student on narrower grounds. It would have been enough, he said, to say that her speech was protected by the First Amendment because it did not disrupt school activities. In a brief urging the Supreme Court to hear the school district’s appeal, the Pennsylvania School Boards Association said the line the Third Circuit had drawn was too crude.

Source: New York Times December 28, 2020 09:56 UTC