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Saturday, October 31, 2009

Ind. Courts - More on "School sued for punishing teens over MySpace pix"

Updating yesterday's ILB entry, here is a story from Wed. Oct. 28th that the ILB missed, reported by Rebecca S. Green of the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette. Some quotes:

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.

Filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Fort Wayne, the lawsuit claims 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 by how the situation was handled.

The ACLU seeks to have the case handled as a class-action on behalf of all students participating in, or who may participate, in extracurricular activities at Smith-Green Community Schools, according to court documents.

According to the lawsuit, the two girls, identified only by initials, participated in a sleepover this summer with friends from Churubusco High School.

During the sleepover, the girls took pictures of themselves “pretending to kiss or lick a large multi-colored novelty phallus shaped lollipop” as well as pictures of themselves in lingerie with dollar bills tucked in their clothing, according to court documents.

The girls posted the pictures on their MySpace pages, visible only to their online friends.

“They intended this to be humorous and all the participants considered it to be so,” the lawsuit said. “There was nothing in the pictures that identified the participants as attending Churubusco High School and there was no reference whatsoever in the pictures to (the school).”

But an unknown person with access to the photos downloaded them, printed copies and gave them to school workers including Couch, who promptly suspended the two girls from all athletic and extracurricular involvement for the year, according to court documents.

The school’s student handbook says the principal may bar students from participating in athletics if their conduct “in or out of school reflects discredit upon Churubusco High School … or creates a disruptive influence on the discipline, good order, moral or educational environment,” according to the lawsuit. * * *

“The forced counseling was humiliating to the plaintiffs and being forced to appear before the coaches to apologize for their intended humorous photographs … was profoundly embarrassing,” according to the lawsuit.

The plaintiffs seek a jury trial.

“The punishment … for expressive activity taken place outside of the (schools) which activity did not disrupt in any way educational activity violated the First Amendment,” according to court documents.

And because the policy exists, it is unconstitutional, the lawsuit alleges.

On behalf of the girls, the ACLU is asking a judge to prevent the school system from continuing to punish the two students and from interpreting the conduct policy to allow such punishment, as well as expunging all references to the matter from their records, according to court documents.

Today's Journal-Gazette has this editorial headed "School space vs. MySpace." Some quotes [emphasis by ILB]:
The promises and perils of social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace are challenging schools struggling to respond to new technology. Some are responding badly.

Churubusco High School is a prime example. Administrators there interfered in what was not a school matter and now find themselves as defendants in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union. * * *

The case is a classic example of a school district overreacting to an incident involving students, whose personal judgment is often limited by their maturity. The girls, no doubt, now realize the danger of posting anything online that they don’t want distributed.

But the punishment they were forced to face – for an incident in the summer, not on school property and not involving the school in any way – was out of line. Nancy Baer, an Albion parent, said she has no connection to the school district but was angered by the account of the punishment.

“I’m appalled that someone would even think up something as twisted as having these young girls go in front of all of these male coaches,” she said. “If it were reversed, and it was boys involved, would he have gotten a line of female faculty members together for them to apologize to? What do they think they’ve accomplished?”

The ACLU is asking a judge to prohibit the Smith-Green schools from continuing to punish the two students and from interpreting the conduct policy to allow such punishment, as well as expunging all references to the matter from their records, according to court documents.

Regardless of the case’s outcome, the school board should address discipline procedures at the school, and board members and administrators elsewhere should weigh their own procedures to ensure they don’t respond in the same unacceptable manner.

Here is a copy of the 9-page complaint in T.V. and M.K. v. Smith-Greem Community School Corp. The claim for relief:
The punishment of plaintiffs for expressive activity taken place outside of the Smith-Green Community Schools which activity did not disrupt in any way educational activity violated the First Amendment and to the extent that defendants have a policy allowing such punishment the policy is unconstitutional as violating the First Amendment as applied to such activity which is not disruptive.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on October 31, 2009 07:47 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts