The First Amendment in the New Age of Internet

 In December of 1965, three students of a Des Moines high school and middle school were sent home and suspended after wearing black armbands in protest against the Vietnam War. Upset that the school was taking away their freedom of expression, the parents of these students sued the school district. This case, Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, would finally be settled by the Supreme Court in 1969. The court ruled in a 7-2 decision that students do not lose their First Amendment right to speech on campus and that the school would have to prove that their actions would interfere with the school. This "test" would be called the Tinker Standard.

This case set a precedent for how schools determined what was harmful to their students' environment. However, during this time, all expressions of speech occurred either in person or in print. In the modern era, it is necessary to understand how freedom of speech can be protected or taken away on social media.

An example of how schools and social media interact within the parameters of the First Amendment came to the Supreme Court in 2021. Brandi Levy was a 14-year-old student who posted a Snapchat off-campus with various profanities about her school and cheer team after not making varsity. She was subsequently suspended from the team for the rest of the year. The case challenged the court to make a decision about whether schools could punish students for the statements they say while away from school.

Before the use of mass social media, an issue like this would have rarely occurred. However with the new age of internet and social sharing, schools have more access to what their students are doing off-campus. In an 8-1 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that Levy's school did in fact infringe on her First Amendment right to freedom of speech. The court upheld the Tinker Standard in this case, stating that Levy's post did not threaten harm or cause disruption to the school. 

The discipline of what students can or cannot post online continues to be four-sided die between the student, their parents, the school, and, in Levy's case, even the government. As social media continues to evolve, our court as well as our Constitution will have to expand to define just how far our rights protect us.