Court: MySpace postings are free speech

[gunsmith]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070410/ap_on_hi_te/myspace_free_speech_2

Court: MySpace postings are free speech
Body:    INDIANAPOLIS - A judge violated a juvenile's free-speech rights when he placed her on probation for posting an expletive-laden entry on MySpace criticizing a school principal, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled.
The three-judge panel on Monday ordered the Putnam Circuit Court to set aside its penalty against the girl, referred to only as A.B. in court records.

"While we have little regard for A.B.'s use of vulgar epithets, we conclude that her overall message constitutes political speech," Judge Patricia Riley wrote in the 10-page opinion.

In February 2006, Greencastle Middle School Principal Shawn Gobert discovered a Web page on MySpace purportedly created by him. A.B., who did not create the page, made derogatory postings on it concerning the school's policy on body piercings.

The state filed a delinquency petition in March alleging that A.B.'s acts would have been harassment, identity deception and identity theft if committed by an adult. The juvenile court dropped most of the charges but in June found A.B. to be a delinquent child and placed her on nine months of probation. The judge ruled the comments were obscene.

A.B. appealed, arguing that her comments were protected political speech under both the state and federal constitutions because they dealt with school policy.

The Court of Appeals found that the comments were protected and that the juvenile court had unconstitutionally restricted her right of free expression.

There was no number for Shawn Gobert in publishing phone listings. The Associated Press left a message seeking comment Monday at Greencastle Middle School.

[HankB]

Schools have NO right to control student's behavior or expression if it occurs away from school, away from school-sponsored events, outside of school hours, and doesn't use school facilities.

If an actual law was broken - libel, terroristic threats, etc., - it's the court's place, NOT the school's place, to take punitive action.

[Manedwolf]

I think this goes right along with a college trying to declare that students who live off campus can't own firearms even if they never bring them on campus. (Washington?)

Some administrators at both the gradeschool and higher education levels need to be smacked with a rolled-up copy of the Bill of Rights and reminded that their authority ends where the school property line ends.

[Perd Hapley]

I assume you all are talking about publicly-funded schools, rather than private organizations that have a right to decide with whom they associate or allow onto their property. 

[Manedwolf]

I assume you all are talking about publicly-funded schools, rather than private organizations that have a right to decide with whom they associate or allow onto their property. 

I think the issue is that schools have tried to declare what's allowed in the lives of private people when they are not on the school's property.

[HankB]

Some administrators at both the gradeschool and higher education levels need to be smacked with a rolled-up copy of the Bill of Rights and reminded that their authority ends where the school property line ends.

And even within the school property line where they do have legitimate authority . . . it's not unbounded and absolute.

I assume you all are talking about publicly-funded schools, rather than private organizations that have a right to decide with whom they associate or allow onto their property.

Private schools are a different matter - as people go there by choice and they're not run by the government, they have a LOT more leeway in making rules.

[Perd Hapley]

I assume you all are talking about publicly-funded schools, rather than private organizations that have a right to decide with whom they associate or allow onto their property. 

I think the issue is that schools have tried to declare what's allowed in the lives of private people when they are not on the school's property.

I understand that, but private schools, like private individuals or businesses, have a right to refuse service to anyone for any reason, or to set conditions for association with them.  Location notwithstanding.  The article doesn't seem to state the status of the school in question. 

[Marnoot]

I assume you all are talking about publicly-funded schools, rather than private organizations that have a right to decide with whom they associate or allow onto their property. 

I think the issue is that schools have tried to declare what's allowed in the lives of private people when they are not on the school's property.

I understand that, but private schools, like private individuals or businesses, have a right to refuse service to anyone for any reason, or to set conditions for association with them.  Location notwithstanding.  The article doesn't seem to state the status of the school in question. 

Ditto. Private schools can set all kinds of restrictions on their students. While attending BYU, I could have been expelled or received lesser-discipline for any violation of the honor code, including drinking, smoking, extra/pre-marital sex, etc. If a private school required all students to have a vegan diet, participate in anti-war protests weekly, swear allegiance to the principles of Marxism and wear a pink tutu at all times, they could do so and I would support their right to do so. I would not have any sympathy for a student who chose to go there, knowing the restrictions, signed an agreement to uphold those regulations, and then complained that they shouldn't have to.

Obviously things are much different for a public school. I wholeheartedly agree that a public school should have no right to regulate the off-campus lives of its students. Even restrictions on on-campus behavior are (or should be) much more limited than a private school. A prime negative example being the University of Utah, who for quite a while  (and still are, in a more limited way) defied the state legislature and state supreme court by "banning" legally concealed firearms on-campus. They have no right to do so. A private school on the other hand certainly can.

[K Frame]

Nice!

[gunsmith]

The article doesn't seem to state the status of the school in question.

probably because it was written by a grad from a gov't indoctrination center....opp's I mean public school.