CHURUBUSCO, Ind. (Oct. 28, 2009) — According to an article published today in the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette , the American Civil Liberties Union has sued Smith-Green Community School Corp. and a principal in federal court on behalf of two girls punished for summer postings on MySpace.
According to JG reporter Rebecca Green, the suit was filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Fort Wayne, claiming the two girls, both sophomore fall-sport athletes, were suspended from extracurricular activities for the entire school year because of sexually suggestive photographs posted on their pages on MySpace, a social networking site on the Internet.
The lawsuit names the district and Churubusco High School Principal Austin Couch, both individually and in his official capacity, and alleges that Couch and the district violated the girls’ First Amendment rights. For more on this story, go to the Journal Gazette …
More on this story from the Indianapolis Star/Associated Press Oct. 30, 2009:
Students sue school over Web free speech
By Charles Wilson / Associated Press
Two sophomore girls have sued their school district after they were punished for posting sexually suggestive photos on MySpace during their summer vacation.
The American Civil Liberties Union, in a federal lawsuit filed last week on behalf of the girls, argues that Churubusco High School violated the girls’ free speech rights when it banned them from extracurricular activities for a joke that didn’t involve the school. They say the district humiliated the girls by requiring them to apologize to an all-male coaches’ board and undergo counseling.
Some child advocates argue that schools should play a role in monitoring students’ behavior, especially when dealing with minors. And the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that students can be disciplined for activities that happen outside of school, so long as the school can prove the activities were disruptive or posed a danger and that it was foreseeable the activities would find their way to campus …
For more on this story from the Indianapolis Star/Associated Press (Oct. 30, 2009) click here
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