Online Speech Pits Teachers vs. Students

Online Speech Pits Teachers vs. Students



This article is very interesting, I just took a class called Law for Educators and this was one of the issues that were discussed among teachers. What about the student who post inappropriate comments about a teacher, principal or school personnel. What are the consequences if any and what happens to the adult who has become bitter because of the incident?
The young lady in the article got upset because a school event had been canceled and it escalated from there. The article stated that the student wrote a comment in her blog calling the principal d***bag on her online journal and told other students to email the superintendent to complain. After the school principal learned of the incident she was barred from serving on the student council and speaking at her upcoming graduation, this blog is now the subject of first amendment lawsuit. After a National School Board Survey of students postings were found to be disruptive to the schools learning environment. Of those a percentage were creating fake sites for teachers and administrators and a high percentage of students posted inappropriate comments or content.
Clearly students today have a lot more ways to express themselves then in the past or back ten years ago, however I think students should be held accountable for such actions but the freedom of speech clause gives us as a people the right to express ourselves.