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“Of course, schools are perfectly permitted to ban cell phones, et cetera, in school,” he said, adding that the party to the suit, Mahanoy Area High School, has such a policy in place.
The case arose after a high school student, identified in court papers as B.L., failed to make the varsity cheerleading team. During the weekend and while not on school grounds, she posted a Snapchat of herself and a friend, middle fingers raised, with the caption, “f - school f - softball f - cheer f - everything.”
In response, the school suspended her from the junior varsity cheerleading squad for a year, prompting the student’s lawsuit against the Mahanoy Area School District, located in central Pennsylvania.
ERIN SCHAFFGetty Images
I spent the morning listening to oral arguments before the Supreme Court in the matter of Fuck Cheer. Actually, the case officially was titled
Mahanoy Area School Dist. v. B. L., and it was an important free-speech case of particular interest to anyone with children in the public schools. Let Amy Howe of SCOTUSBlog run down the facts of the case for you.
The case,
Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L., was filed by Brandi Levy, who in 2017 was a sophomore at a public high school in Pennsylvania when, much to her disappointment, she did not make the varsity cheerleading team. Levy decided to take out her frustration with a “snap” – a message on the social media app Snapchat – in which she posted a picture of herself and a friend with their middle fingers raised, along with the caption “Fuck school fuck softball fuck cheer fuck everything.”
WASHINGTON, D.C. (NBC) – A profanity-laced social media post landed a Pennsylvania teen in hot water and, eventually, the case of student free speech was brought before the Supreme Court.
Brandi Levy said she was upset after being booted from varsity cheerleader to junior varsity when she posted a Snapchat story which included several f-bombs and her middle finger.
Word got back to Mahanoy Area High School administrators and the cheerleading coach, who kicked Brandi off the cheer squad entirely.
The school district upheld the decision and Levy filed a lawsuit.
The story ignited a firestorm over what qualifies as free speech for public school students and how much control schools have over it.
By Syndicated Content
By Andrew Chung
(Reuters) â U.S. Supreme Court justices on Wednesday will consider whether public schools can punish students for what they say off campus in a case involving a former Pennsylvania cheerleaderâs foul-mouthed social media post that could impact the free speech rights of millions of young Americans.
The nine justices are set hear arguments in an appeal by the Mahanoy Area School District of a lower court ruling in favor of Brandi Levy that found that the U.S. Constitutionâs First Amendment guarantee of freedom of speech bars public school officials from regulating off-campus speech.
A Lively Supreme Court Argument Over a Cheerleader’s Vulgar Rant
The justices struggled to determine how the First Amendment applies to public schools’ power to punish students for social media posts and other off-campus speech.
Brandi Levy.Credit.Danna Singer/A.C.L.U., via Reuters
April 28, 2021
WASHINGTON In a freewheeling two-hour argument on free speech in the age of social media, the Supreme Court seemed inclined to reject an appeals court’s sweeping ruling that the First Amendment does not allow public schools to punish students for what they say outside school grounds. Instead, the justices seemed to favor a modest decision that would leave many difficult questions unanswered.