« Ind. Decisions - Court of Appeals issues 5 today (and 19 NFP) | Main | Ind. Decisions - Disarray compounds in the post-Wallace world »

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Courts - More on: "Florida high school student files complaint after suspension for creating Facebook page critical of teacher"

Updating this ILB entry from December 10, 2008, Hannah Sampson of the AP is reporting today under the headline "Judge Rules Student's Facebook Rants About Teacher Are Protected Speech." Some quotes:

A student who set up a Facebook page to complain about her teacher -- and was later suspended -- had every right to do so under the First Amendment, a federal magistrate has ruled.

The ruling not only allows Katherine "Katie" Evans' suit against the principal to move forward, it could set a precedent in cases involving speech and social networking on the Internet, experts say.

The courts are in the early stages of exploring the limits of free speech within social networking, said Howard Simon, the executive director of the Florida ACLU, which filed the suit on Evans' behalf.

"It's one of the main things that we wanted to establish in this case, that the First Amendment has a life in the social networking technology as it applies to the Internet and other forms of communication," Simon said.

In 2007, Evans, then a senior at Pembroke Pines Charter High School, created a Facebook page where she vented about "the worst teacher I've ever met." * * *

[A]fter Principal Peter Bayer found out about it, he bumped Evan from her Advanced Placement classes, putting her in classes with less prestige, and suspended her for three days.

In late 2008, Evans filed suit against the principal, asking that the suspension be ruled unconstitutional and reversed, that the documents be removed from her file at the school and that she receive reimbursement for attorney fees.

Evans, an honors student, was concerned that the suspension would tarnish her academic record and hurt her chances in graduate school and her career.

Bayer tried to get the case dismissed and asked for immunity against paying damages.

In a ruling on Friday, Magistrate Judge Barry Garber declined Bayer's request to toss the case and said the principal could be forced to pay up if Evans, now 19 and a journalism student at the University of Florida, is victorious.

"Evans' speech falls under the wide umbrella of protected speech," Garber wrote. "It was an opinion of a student about a teacher, that was published off-campus, did not cause any disruption on-campus, and was not lewd, vulgar, threatening, or advocating illegal or dangerous behavior."

The judge also noted that the principal suspended Evans two months after she had taken the page down.

"In short, the potential spark of disruption had sputtered out, and all that remained was the opportunity to punish," Garber wrote. * * *

Matthew D. Bavaro, who filed the suit with the American Civil Liberties Union on Evans' behalf, said the case helps clarify when schools can punish students for speech that doesn't take place at school.

"These days, things are done on the Internet. Socialization is done on the Internet," he said. "So the law needs to adapt and we need precedent on how courts are going to apply First Amendment principles for off-campus speech."

He said he believes the ruling "seems like a pretty strong signal" of where the case will go.

While the suit is far from resolved, legal experts say it is an important case.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on February 17, 2010 04:04 PM
Posted to Courts in general