Racist tweets and punishment

Do we know if the kids were using school computers on school grounds when they made the tweets? If they were, then I can understand the school wanting to discipline the kids.

If it was only done at home and did not interfere with school, then I'm not sure why the school should be doing the disciplining.

 

Obviously there may be other legal issues if the school is public.

 

Were the tweets done at school? Otherwise, do kids ever get punished for things they do when not in school?

 

It seems odd that the school punishes for something like this, but fuck it. The last thing I am going to worry about is some asshole kids getting a little extra punishment.

 

I think Beaker pretty much nailed it. Unless they used school computers to do it, the school has no business being involved in it. Let the parents do their jobs.

 

Agreed. Unless it was done at school, during a school-sponsored activity or using school equipment, it is not the school's job to police kids' behavior.

 

Schools frequently punish kids for off-school-grounds Internet behavior, though usually in the bullying context. It has to cause a distraction at school, or potentially do so. Supreme Court has yet to weigh in on this, but I think most of the courts that have have come out in favor of the schools, not the students.

There was a recent thread here on some Indiana girls that were punished for out-of-school Facebook posts.

 

Tough one. Good question. I know a lot of folks think home is home and kids aren't students unless they are at school, but I just don't think that's a realistic view of the entire student community these days.

More to the point, however, is that if my kid ever does something like this I won't be bothering to attempt to reduce the penalties he gets. Sports is obviously the biggest privilege those kids have going for them, and if they have to get benched a few games to learn a lesson, so be it. (I also very much question the dad's true interest in handling it at home.)

 

To be sure, 1st Amendment law is incredibly permissive towards public schools.

 

Again, I would argue that this is a minor and irrelevant distinction. The school community exists on social media. I don't know the racial composition of the school in question, but imagine being a black student walking the halls with those jackasses the next morning.