Internet Speech and the First Amendment Rights of Public School Students

In exploring the range of the First Amendment issues raised by school efforts to discipline students for Internet activities, this Article first examines Supreme Court and lower court precedent involving student speech outside of the Internet context. It then looks at Beussink, the first reported decision to involve discipline of a student for Internet speech. It also discusses other Internet situations in which schools have sought to impose sanctions on students. In its final section, it applies free speech methodology to a range of Internet situations. This exploration identifies some situations where a school is free to control speech that it believes may harm the school environment and others where the free speech rights of students preclude school disciplinary action. For those situations where there is no clear answer as to whose rights are paramount, the Article cannot provide firm answers, but at least raises some of the critical questions