A federal appeals court has upheld the suspension of a West Virginia student accused of bullying a classmate online, despite the argument that she was punished for speech that was created outside of school. In Kowalski v. Berkeley County Schools, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit said the speech on the Web page at issue was sufficiently connected to the school environment as to implicate the school districts recognized authority to discipline speech which materially and substantially interferes with school and the rights of others.
A version of this article appeared in the August 10, 2011 edition of Education Week as Discipline Over Online Bullying Upheld
