Video: Who pays the real price when a student is suspended for making a post on social media?

“The current doctrine stems from a case called ‘Tinker’ (Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District) which stems from the mid-60s when a group of students wore black armbands to protest the Vietnam War,” says legal expert Anthony Marcum of the R-Street Institute. “In that case, the Supreme Court found that unless the speech was materially or substantially disruptive to the school the school couldn’t regulate that speech, now the wrinkle was the addition of technology and that makes this test a lot more difficult in a 21st century world.”

The addition of technology has only complicated matters for schools over the years with the Supreme Court unwilling until recently to revisit the issue and provide, perhaps, a measure of guidance for schools.

“These sorts of questions really place schools in a difficult place where they have to be educator and sometimes police at the same time,” Marcum said. “It is a difficult and complicated balance of when does the family step in, when does law enforcement step in, and when does the school step in, and it becomes even more difficult with the evolution of technology.”

Watch the interview here.

Image credit: panitanphoto