Twitter Takedown

This year politicians have been discovering both silly and scandalous ways to get in trouble with Twitter, and now Kansas Governor Sam Brownback stumbled upon a new one: censoring the tweets of teenagers.

Last week, high school student Emma Sullivan sent out a tweet criticizing the Governor after a school trip to the State Capitol.  After discovering the Tweet – apparently through contact with a Brownback staffer – the school principal demanded Sullivan write an apology letter for her comment.  This Sunday, Sullivan refused to do so.

Legal precedent suggests that the type of activity Sullivan engaged in should be given Free Speech protections, and cannot be censored by her school.  The most well-known modern case of suppression of student speech – Morse v. Frederick, more commonly known as The Bong Hits 4 Jesus Case – authorized a school’s suppression of student speech.  The Supreme Court ruled that a school could discipline a student for speech (such as holding up a sign reading “BONG HITS 4 JESUS”) during a school-sponsored event.  However, this case is distinct from Sullivan’s actions in a key way.  Despite her tweet claiming that she, “Just made mean comments at gov brownback and told him he sucked, in person,” Sullivan never actually spoke with Brownback and only made her statement that #heblowsalot after the event.

Thus Sullivan’s situation is more akin to Hermitage School District v. Layshock, in which a school attempted to suspend a student for creating a mock MySpace profile of the principal (yes, the case started back when people used MySpace), despite the fact that the profile was created outside of school.  The 3^rd Circuit unanimously ruled that the student’s activity was protected by the First Amendment as it occurred off school grounds.  Sullivan’s situation is akin to Layshock rather than Morse because her Tweet was made outside of school, rather than during a school sponsored event.

Fortunately, this incident will have no need to turn into a lawsuit, as the school recently said it would not take action on the issue.  However it still serves as an example of the importance of Free Speech, and how we must always be wary of efforts to limit it.  The school’s reaction to Sullivan’s tweet seems to be getting a large deal of media attention because it appeared to be an attempt to engage in political suppression, but that is not the only worrisome feature about what nearly happened here.  High school is a time when students are learning what principles they value, and how they will act in their life ahead.  Schools should work not only to impress upon students that they have a fundamental right to Free Speech, but also encourage them to use that right to be critical of the world around them, and seek to improve it by doing so.

 

Image by Shovelling Son.