Jon+Weiss+Freedom+of+Speech

Freedom of Speech  Freedom of speech is a very serious subject matter, and it should not be taken lightly. With the cases of the two people who are suing their school districts over a freedom of speech matter on the internet, freedom of speech is highly involved, and with the way our world of technologically advancing, freedom of speech may have to be redefined from the way it is today, to include all forms of communication. With the two cases in question, I believe that no, schools do not have the right to punish those students for what they said. However, I believe that things like this should be on a case-to-case basis. It depends on what the person says or does, and you can’t just put a blanket over every possibility and leave it like that. If the behavior or what is said is pertaining to school in a threatening way, then yes, I believe that the schools should take action. However, if the person says or does something about the school, without it being threatening in a way at all, means that legally the schools should have no right to do anything. I believe that there are very few limits on the freedom of speech law, and all of those should include the internet in its jurisdiction. The founding fathers specifically worded it so that the only thing that you could get in trouble for with freedom of speech is threats against an establishment. That should include the internet as well. If somebody says something not threatening outside to friends, then says the same thing on the internet, they shouldn’t get in trouble either way.

I do believe that schools have the right to limit student expression within the school, but only to a certain degree. If someone is running around the school spouting Nazi propaganda, and actually meaning it not as a joke, then I believe that it is right that they are punished. However, I don’t think students should be punished for anything less than or equal to that. Threats against the school or other people should mean punishment, but just saying that those people are idiots or douche bags shouldn’t warrant anything unnecessary. Overall, freedom of speech cannot be taken lightly in situations like the two students are, and it is my belief that neither of the students should be in any way punished for what they said outside of school, when what they said isn’t, and cannot be perceived in any way, as a threat to the school, teachers, or any of the other students. If these two students were ruled against in a court hearing, then I believe that the courts were going against freedom of speech, and that something should be changed to make it more clear to prevent situations like this from happening again. <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">