In March 2007, a student referred to as J.S. and fellow classmante, K.L. posted a fake profile on MySpace depicting their principle in a negative light, putting it mildly. Showing Principle James S. McGonigle and using a photo that had been taken from the district’s Web site, the profile stated that he was a 40-year-old bisexual man whose interests included “being a tight ass,” “fucking in my office,” and “hitting on students and their parents.”

After the incident, both J.S. and K.L. were suspended from school for 10 days but this caused a parental outrage and J.S’s family filed suit. In court papers, the plaintiff’s team argued that the suspension ran afoul of the U.S. Supreme Court’s historic 1969 decision in Tinker v. Des Moines, which claimed that a student’s speech may not be punished unless it caused a “substantial and material disruption at the school.”

However, U.S. District Judge James M. Munley disagreed, stating, “a school can validly restrict speech that is vulgar and lewd and also it can restrict speech that promotes unlawful behavior.”

As written on Law.com, “In the suit, attorneys Mary Catherine Roper of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania and Mary E. Kohart and Meredith W. Nissen of Drinker Biddle & Reath argued that the suspension was unconstitutional because the speech took place outside of school and because it violated the parental rights of the student’s parents to determine how best to raise, nurture, discipline and educate their child.”

Not so said Munley who rejected her civil rights suit. According to the judge, Tinker v. Des Moines “is not a good fit for every school speech situation.”

Popularity: 3% [?]