This case made national headlines this past week. Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L. which is about a cheerleader in PA who, when she found out she didn’t make the varsity squad at her HS, was so upset that she decided to vent her anger in a profane Snapchat rant.
B.L. is the initials for her name… since she was a minor at the time, her name was not used.
Let me tell you why I was drawn to this case, because I do feel it raises some important issues for athletes, social media, and of course, sports parents and coaches.
Now, we all understand that getting cut from a team, or not making the varsity squad, is always a big blow to any youngster. And over the years, such a moment is filled with tears and sometimes anger. But until recently, when a kid got cut from a team, their disappointment was usually hidden away to include only one’s family and perhaps a few very close friends. That is, there was no public display of venting of one’s emotions.
But the advent of social media has changed all of this. And in this case, the girl took to her cellphone and to Snapchat to let the world how she felt about not making the varsity. The result?
She put forth a rant which was profane and vulgar…it was sent on her cellphone to 250 of her friends – with the assumption that, being on Snapchat, her outburst would fade away within a matter of hours. She two took a selfie with middle fingers raised and posted it with the text “f school f softball f cheer f everything.” The girl sent the social media posting when she was away from school. She was actually in town at a local convenience store with a friend.
But as it developed, one of the cheerleading coaches got wind of this outburst, saw a screen shot of what the girl had posted, took it to the school admin, and the HS school basically decided that the girl had violated team and school rule. As punishment, she was suspended from the cheerleading program for a year – she was on the JV squad after not making varsity. Part of her anger was that the cheerleading coach had put a freshman on the varsity, in effect, bypassing the girl in question.
Now, As a condition of being a cheerleader, she was required to sign a code of conduct that required squad members to show respect for their teammates, coaches, the school, teachers, other schools’ cheerleaders; the rule forbade the use of profanity. Another rule forbade cheerleaders from posting “negative information” about “cheerleading, cheerleaders or coaches” on the Internet.
The girl’s parents were outraged by her daughter being suspended from cheerleading for a year, feeling this was a violation of their daughter’s right of freedom of speech, and they sued the school district. Her case eventually made it to the US Supreme Court, which decided this past week 8-1 in the girl’s favor.
In short, the Supreme Court ruled decisively that the HS had overstepped its boundaries in punishing this girl for what she had posted on her own cellphone and when she was away from school.
Does this ruling give kids more power than before to feel free to post whatever they want – knowing that the Supreme Court has their back?
Can athletes who want to lash out at their school or coaches be able now to post their feelings without concerns of retribution? Is there a line to be drawn? Can schools do something to prevent this? And what about the parents in all of this? This girls’ parents obviously felt strongly that their daughter was just exercising her freedom of speech – and she won!
Fascinating case. Take a listen to the comments from callers on this show. My sense is that the legal world is just getting a real taste of the “untamed animal” known as social media.
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