In 2017 a Mahanoy Area School District 9th grader found out she hadn’t been selected to the cheerleading squad and would remain on the junior varsity squad. She was angry, and she sent a picture of her and a friend with middle fingers extended. She also cursed “school, softball, cheerleading, and everything.” [The paper didn’t print the curse word, but I have a feeling it might have been what all of us know as “the F-word.”]
Snapchat messages disappear, but one of the recipients of the message took a screen shot and showed it to her mother, who was a coach at the school. The school suspended the disappointed girl from cheerleading for a year. She then sued the school district.
The case was heard by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled that the school could not punish students for things said outside of school. The district appealed. Next month the Supreme Court will decide whether to hear the case.
I’m on the side of the 9th grader. When I was in 9th grade, I disliked some of my teachers. I am sure I said things about them that were unkind. I didn’t do it on-line, of course, but I may have written it in notes or said it on the bus on the way home. It is what 9th graders do.
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