Today, the U.S. Supreme Court is hearing arguments for a case involving a 14-year-old cheerleader who used profanity to express her frustration in a post on Snapchat.
Brandi Levy was frustrated over her school keeping her on the junior varsity cheerleading squad for another season. On Snapchat, Brandi posted a photo of her and her friend extending their middle fingers with a written rant that read: “F*** school f*** softball f*** cheer f*** everything. Brandi was then suspended from cheerleading for a year after the team’s coach found out.
Brandi is now 18, and her case has reached the Supreme Court. This is a First Amendment case, and she is arguing that a public school’s disciplinary authority should not extend beyond the school’s campus. Schools, educators, and the Biden administration support the school having the authority to discipline the actions of students off campus as a way of controlling cyberbullying and racism.
This free speech case and the authority of schools has far-reaching implications. One of the challenges for the justices is whether to rule that schools have the authority to punish students for things like waving a Confederate flag or wearing a Black Lives Matter T-shirt off campus.
It is also important to consider the new reality of in-home learning and how far a school’s authority should go concerning a student’s words or behavior in their own home.
Extending the authority to discipline students off-campus is a dangerous step to take, and it clearly violates a student’s right to free speech.
