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Cyberbullying Regulation and Free Speech

By Justin Bathon

Here is an article out today on an off-campus student conversation about Prom and a "spoiled" girl in their school. The conversation was taped and a student posted it to YouTube. The school administrators, concerned over cyberbullying, suspended the student who uploaded the video for two days, but not the other students recorded in the video that were actually making fun of the "spoiled girl." Now, the student that was suspended has sued claiming her free speech rights were violated.

It is not that often that I get to post articles where I think the administrator did the right thing, but this is one of those cases. First, I think the school should have no authority over the off-campus conversation. Now, many will argue there was a nexus, but kids will gossip and complain about other kids and the school does not need to be involved in much of that. So the decision not to punish the other students was probably right. Second, I think there is a good reason to suspend the student that uploaded the video. The conversation itself is not harmful, but the publication of that conversation was. The publication on YouTube probably had bad intent behind it and could potentially be classified as cyberbullying. Lastly, there was probably no free speech concerns here. In order to be protected under the First Amendment, expression has to rise to the level of protected speech meaning that it must be intended to communicate an idea. I don't really see how posting a YouTube of other students gossiping is intended to convey an idea. Even if it is intended to convey an idea, the school could argue it was inflammatory and/or disruptive to the educational process.

So, good call school administrators.

Full post as published by Edjurist on August 05, 2008 (boomark / email).