A Legal Analysis of Students' First Amendment Rights in K-12 Public Education as it Relates to Internet Speech

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Erdie, J. (2019). A Legal Analysis of Students' First Amendment Rights in K-12 Public Education as it Relates to Internet Speech. Unc Charlotte Electronic Theses And Dissertations.
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Abstract

Adolescents are rarely without a cellphone and typically have unfettered access to social media sites where they post their status or comment on their friends’ posts. When said communication is used to bully or threaten others, it brings on challenges for schools. School administrators routinely ask the question: When the Internet is used in harmful ways by students, how should the school respond? This study was a legal analysis of students’ First Amendment rights in K-12 schools. State and federal appellate court considered and analyzed caselaw to determine the prevailing legal status of students’ rights when students utilized Internet speech as a tool for bullying another student. This study also considered to what extent the courts applied the Tinker test in the cases involving Internet speech. The conclusions from this study provide school administrators with context as to when they have regulatory power when discipline involves to Internet speech.

Details
Author

Erdie, Julia

Title

A Legal Analysis of Students' First Amendment Rights in K-12 Public Education as it Relates to Internet Speech

Physical Description

1 online resource (123 pages) : PDF

Date

2019

Degree Granting Institution

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Abstract

Adolescents are rarely without a cellphone and typically have unfettered access to social media sites where they post their status or comment on their friends’ posts. When said communication is used to bully or threaten others, it brings on challenges for schools. School administrators routinely ask the question: When the Internet is used in harmful ways by students, how should the school respond? This study was a legal analysis of students’ First Amendment rights in K-12 schools. State and federal appellate court considered and analyzed caselaw to determine the prevailing legal status of students’ rights when students utilized Internet speech as a tool for bullying another student. This study also considered to what extent the courts applied the Tinker test in the cases involving Internet speech. The conclusions from this study provide school administrators with context as to when they have regulatory power when discipline involves to Internet speech.

Genre

doctoral dissertations

Subjects--Topics

Educational leadership

Degree

D.Ed.

Keywords

First Amendment
Internet Speech
Public Education
School Law
Social Media

Subject Area

Educational Leadership

Advisor(s)

Dunaway, David

Committee Members

Benson, Tracey
Shore, Rebecca
Wayland, Coral

Degree Note

Thesis (D.Ed.)--University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 2019.

Rights Statement

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Rights Holder Information

Copyright is held by the author unless otherwise indicated.

Identifier

Erdie_uncc_0694D_12267

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.13093/etd:2637