A school district which fired a cheeleader for cussing out of school violated her first amendment right to free speech. The Supreme Court issued its ruling today in an 8-1 decision, with weirdo justice Clarence Thomas dissenting.
B. L. posted two images on Snapchat, a social media ap-plication for smartphones that allows users to share temporary images with selected friends. B. L.'s posts expressed frustration with the school and the school's cheerleading squad, and one contained vulgar language and gestures. When school officials learned of the posts, theysuspended B. L. from the junior varsity cheerleading squad for the up-coming year. … While public schools may have a special interest in regulatingsome off-campus student speech, the special interests offered by the school are not sufficient to overcome B. L.'s interest in free expression
She won her case two years ago, but the Mahanoy School District wanted a kicking from the top. It's not a clear win: Tinker's limits on off-campus speech that "significantly disrupts" school activities still stands. But the standard of "significant disruption" is now higher than, well, this:
"fuck school fuck softball fuck cheer fuck everything," to quote the magnificent B.L., but most of all fuck the Mahanoy Area High School for trying to silence its students off-campus.
