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Students go to court to uphold right to be mean online

By Michael Winter, USA TODAY

Some courts, parents and free-speech advocates are pushing back in cyber-bullying cases, saying students have a First Amendment right to be mean in cyberspace, the Los Angeles Times reports.

In one Beverly Hills case, an eighth-grader complained to school officials that a classmate had posted a video to YouTube of students belittling her. They called her "spoiled," a "brat" and a "slut."

School officials suspended the video poster, who then complained in federal court that her free speech rights had been violated. Last month a federal judge agreed.


"The court cannot uphold school discipline of student speech simply because ... teenagers are emotionally fragile and may fight over hurtful comments."

A Pennsylvania student was suspended for 10 days and placed in an alternative education program after he created a parody MySpace profile of the school's principal, whom he called a "big steroid freak," a "big whore," and wrote that he was "too drunk to remember" the date of his birthday. The boy sued.

A federal judge ruled that although the profile was "lewd, profane and sexually inappropriate," school officials had no right to right to restrict the student's speech because they couldn't prove his handiwork caused a significant disruption on campus.

"The mere fact that the Internet may be accessed at school does not authorize school officials to become censors of the World Wide Web," wrote U.S. District Judge Terrence McVerry.

The school district has appealed to the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals.

Free-speech advocates told the Times that in response to such high-profile cases such as the suicide of a Missouri girl who was cyber-bullied, schools have overreacted.

"If all cruel teasing led to suicide, the human race would be extinct," UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh told the paper.

(Written by Melanie Eversley of USA TODAY)

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