Students' free speech online

If it's illegal offline, it's illegal on the Web, says law professor Anita Ramasastry at the University of Washington in a thorough commentary at FindLaw.com. She refers to threats, harassment, defamation, libel. In fact, blogging and social-networking sites actually help law enforcement gather evidence on illegal activity and can prevent dangerous situations from playing out. An example being the recent case in Kansas in which teens appear to have been prevented by police from carrying out an attack on their school (see "Shooting rampage avoided due to MySpace" in ArsTechnica.com). But what about when student online activities are not illegal but upsetting to school administrators or faculty? "In such cases … the First Amendment will protect many student postings, as long as they do not 'materially disrupt' school activities - and as long as the students attend public, not private, schools." She looks at cyberbullying and defamation, as well as cases where postings or pictures can be "instrumentality of crime" (as when a pedophile grooms a child with his posts), evidence of violating the law (such as the posted video of the fire-bombing of an old Air Force hangar by two California teenagers), or crimes themselves (e.g., comments that constitute criminal threats). She also comments on the Electronic Frontier Foundation's "The Student Blogger's Legal FAQ." Also this week: the Associated Press's "Legal questions rise as schools punish students for using MySpace" and CNET on how some schools are dealing with students' generally superior tech literacy.