Back in September, Kirk Strang presented at the WASDA New Superintendents Academy — centering his attention on the subject of Student Rights and Responsibilities in the Era of Polarized Political Landscape.
In this five-part series, we’re sharing an in-depth look at Kirk’s presentation, which focuses on the many facets of student speech and expression, including:
- Part 1: Basic Principles, Seminal Case Law & Building Your Defense
- Part 2: Oral or Written Speech
- Part 3: Clothing
- Part 4: Prayer
- Part 5: Summary of Speech Schools Might Be Able to Regulate (Sometimes)
In the final installment of the series we continue our exploration of student speech and expression, this time diving into Kirk’s summary of speech schools might be able to regulate (sometimes), including:
- On-campus Speech
- Off-campus Speech
- Student Speech & Expression Dos & Don’ts
ON-CAMPUS SPEECH
If any of the following types of speech are occurring on campus, schools can step in to regulate:
- Indecent, lewd, vulgar, obscene, or plainly offensive.
- Reasonably construed to promote illegal drug use.
- Part of the curriculum or school-sponsored activities.
- Conveys a true threat.
- Materially disrupts classwork, involves substantial disorder, or invades the rights of others.
OFF-CAMPUS SPEECH
Here’s a list of off-campus speech that is within a school’s authority to regulate:
- Involves serious/severe bullying or harassment that targets particular individuals.
- Threatens students or teachers.
- Breaks rules related to lessons, writing papers, using computers, or participating in other online school activities.
- Breaches school security devices, including material maintained within school computers.
Student Speech & Expression: Dos & Don’ts
DO:
- Consider whether off-campus speech is directed at individuals, used district devices, occurred during school hours, mentions the district by name, or substantially disrupts the school environment before acting.
- Review athletic/extracurricular codes of conduct and district policies regulating off-campus speech in light of the Mahanoy decision.
- Enforce discrimination, harassment, and bullying policies when speech creates a hostile educational environment.
- Consider past instances of dress code violations and/or any responses to consistent violations in similar districts to forecast whether substantial disruption is likely under the Tinker test.
DON’T:
- Adopt policies in response to hot-button issues that may be viewpoint discriminatory.
- Prohibit speech based on a belief that substantial disruption will occur without being able to show a history of such disruption or significant tension.
This brings us to the end of Part 5 of our series on student speech and expression. We hope Kirk’s summary of speech schools might be able to regulate (sometimes), proves helpful.
In our next series of articles, we’ll dive into another one of Kirk’s 2023 WASDA Conference presentations called, Hot Topics: Action Plans For Current Issues & Those to Anticipate.
Additional articles based on WASDA Conference presentations that may be of interest: