Teenagers Being Disciplined By School For Incidents Off Campus
Attorney Frederick Penney dives into the Brandi Levy case
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SACRAMENTO, Calif., May 7, 2021 /PRNewswire/ Managing partner of Penney and Associates Lawyers weighs in on the controversy over whether a school can discipline a child for activities that have occurred off campus? https://www.penneylawyers.com/ .
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
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This controversy revolves around the 2017 case of then 14-year-old Brandi Levy and the Mahanoy Area School District in Pennsylvania. Brandi was a junior varsity cheerleader at Mahanoy Area High School in Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania. After one year of cheer Brandi was hoping that she would be moved up from junior varsity to varsity cheerleader. However, she was not moved up to the varsity cheer squad and she like many kids was quite disappointed. On
Increasing Pressure on Schools to Address Off-Campus Conduct
K-12 administrators seek our counsel frequently on the issues of off-campus jurisdiction over student misconduct. Conversations about addressing out-of-school sexual assault and sexual harassment have been especially pressing because of the significant changes that have happened with Title IX over the last twelve months. District and school practices and policies are all over the map. In some states, K-12 schools would never extend the reach of their codes of conduct off-campus. In other locations, it seems to vary district-by-district. We’ve even noted that sometimes it varies within districts, where administrators may be loath to address off-campus sexual assaults between students (or any behaviors that are crimes) but are willing to address out-of-school harassing speech that occurs on social media.
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The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a free speech case involving a Pennsylvania high school student who was kicked off her cheerleading team over a profanity-laced Snapchat message, a case advocates say has free speech implications for all students.
Some parents and students are calling the policy flat-out sexist for both its wording and enforcement as more than 80% of infractions over the last three years have been issued to female students, according to data provided by district officials.
A March 26 large-scale inspection of students dress at Bartram Trail High School resulted in 31 students cited for issues such as the length of their skirts or exposed midriffs. All of the violations were against female students.
The problem, critics say, is that verbiage in the policy, such as modest, not revealing and too distracting, puts the blame on young women as if they were actively trying to call attention to their developing bodies.
Mahanoy involves a profanity-laden Snapchat tirade by a Pennsylvania high school cheerleader. Upon learning that she did not make varsity cheerleading, the student, B.L., posted a picture of herself on the Snapchat app with the text “f school f softball f cheer f everything.” It was a Saturday, and she was off-campus and not at a supervised school event. B.L.’s school suspended her from the junior varsity cheer team. It cited the impact that her conduct could have on the cheer coaches’ ability to maintain respect and order on the team and the confidence and trust of B.L. by other cheerleaders on the team.