Larry Levy believes the questions from U.S. Supreme Court justices to the attorney representing Mahanoy Area School District in his daughter Brandi's student free speech case Wednesday morning suggest they're leaning in her favor.
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Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L, which the Supreme Court heard on Wednesday, is a tough case. And it’s not tough because it presents the kind of politically toxic questions that often cause the justices to retreat into their partisan corners.
Members of the Court from across the political spectrum spent Wednesday morning struggling to determine when a school district should be allowed to discipline students for speech that they engage in when they are not at school or engaged in any kind of school-sponsored activity. The question has become all the more difficult now that the internet allows a student to post content over the weekend to social media that can be read by all of their classmates on Monday.
Justices seem wary of making broader statements on student free speech Cheerleaders / YouTube screenshot Kevin Daley • April 28, 2021 5:30 pm
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The Supreme Court on Wednesday seemed to sympathize with a former high school cheerleader who was punished by coaches for using profanity on Snapchat, but remained leery of saying too much about student free speech rights.
A federal appeals court sided with the cheerleader and said schools cannot punish students for speech that happens off campus. The Court would not go that during Wednesday s two-hour arguments, as many of the justices worried about striking the right balance between free speech and a school s need to stop harassment, bullying, and general disruptions.
The Philadelphia Inquirer
ACLU via AP
Brandi Levy wears her former cheerleading outfit while standing outside Mahanoy Area High School in Mahanoy City.
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PHILADELPHIA When Brandi Levy learned she’d been relegated to Mahanoy Area High School’s junior varsity cheerleading team in 2017 she did what most teens these days do turned to social media to vent her frustration.
But her profane post on Snapchat in which the then-14-year-old, middle finger extended, wrote “F - school, F - softball, F - cheer, F - everything” didn’t just get her suspended from the squad for a year. It landed the Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, teen in the middle of what legal scholars have described as the most significant case involving the free speech rights of students to land before the U.S. Supreme Court in 50 years.
US Supreme Court signals support for cheerleader in free speech case
Apr 29, 2021 8:39 AM PHT
Reuters
US Supreme Court justices on Wednesday, April 28, appeared ready to rule in favor of a former Pennsylvania high school cheerleader who was disciplined over a foul-mouthed social media post but cautiously approached the broader question of whether public schools can punish students for what they say off campus.
The nine justices heard nearly two hours of arguments in an appeal by the Mahanoy Area School District of a lower court ruling in favor of Brandi Levy that found that the US Constitution s First Amendment guarantee of free speech bars public school officials from regulating off-campus speech. The case could impact the free speech rights of America s 50 million public school students.