The year was 2017 and 14 year old Brandi Levy was pissed! She had tried out for Varsity Cheerleading at her Pennsylvania high school but didn’t make the team. She’d have to spend another year in Junior Varsity. So Brandi did what many teenagers might consider, she vented on Snapchat, posting a video (middle finger up) and text (“F--- school, f--- softball, f--- cheer, f--- everything,”), which disappeared after 24 hours.
What Brandi, and the rest of us, didn’t realize was that her actions would lead all the way to the Supreme Court, with students’ first amendment rights hanging in the balance. According to Justin Driver, Yale Law Professor and author of The Schoolhouse Gate: Public Education, the Supreme Court, and the Battle for the American Mind, “This is the most momentous case in more than five decades involving student speech.”
So, let’s break it down:
What happened?
After Brandi’s disappointing news, she went to the Cocoa Hut that weekend with a friend. While there, she posted this Snapchat to 250 people. Although it was gone by Monday, someone screenshot it and showed it to another friend who happened to be the kid of one of the cheerleading coaches. Brandi was then barred from cheerleading for the year, since the schools said she had violated the team rules of showing respect and avoiding “foul language and inappropriate gestures”.
How’d this first get to court?
Brandi’s parents tried to convince the school to let her cheer to no avail, so the family went to the ACLU and who sued the Mahanoy Area School district in federal court. Brandi won the lawsuit, and it was declared that Brandi’s punishment was a violation of her First Amendment rights. She was put back on the Junior Varsity team and made varsity the next two years. The PA Court of Appeals later reinforced the decision saying that the Snapchat post happened outside of school time, not on school grounds, and didn't cause "material and substantial" disruption to the school so she should not have been disciplined.
What’s happening now?
The Mahanoy Area School district asked the US Supreme Court to take up the case and this Wednesday the case will be heard by the nation’s highest Court. They will decide when/to what extent schools can discipline students for actions and speech that happen outside of school grounds and/or during non-school hours. The school district is arguing that the ability to discipline is important in order to counter cyberbullying, racism, and harassment. Brandi continues to argue that she (and other youth) should be able to have free speech when not at school.
How might this affect youth?
This question is best answered by asking your students directly. What would it mean for youth if the School district wins? What would be the pros and cons if Brandi Levy wins?
Feel free to scaffold this discussion with information from this blogpost and related articles such as one from BBC news or one from The Washington Post via Boston.com.
We do know that if the school district wins, that students will be open to school discipline for statements, actions and gestures shared on social media outside of school time and outside of the school campus. If Brandi Levy wins, then students’ outside of school speech will be a first amendment right, but it may make it harder to curb dangerous, racist, or harmful language/actions.