Running head: STUDENT’S RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Student’s Rights and Responsibilities – Portfolio #4

Lauren Ritzer

College of Southern Nevada

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STUDENTS RIGHTS AND RESPONSBILITIES

Our case scenario presents, a student, Bill Foster, who was suspended by his school for

wearing an earring. With there being a copious amount of gang related school violence, the

school imitated a policy for dress code. The policy included no wearing of gang emblems,

jewelry, and athletic caps. For Bill’s case, he states he is not involved in a gang, and the wearing

of the jewelry was for plain style purposes. Now, we will present actual court cases that will

support and oppose this case scenario.

In our first case, J.C. v. Beverly Hills Unified School District (2009) We have here, J.C,

who is a 13-year-old student in California. One day he went to an off-campus restaurant with

friends and recorded them using profanity to ridicule another student. Using a home computer,

J.C. uploaded the video to YouTube and contacted other students about it. Administrators

suspended J.C. though there was no evidence any student viewed the video at school. The school

district argued that it had to deal with an upset parent and student and that five other students had

to miss some class because of the investigation. JC ended up winning this case because it was not

involved with school, and was done off campus. This would support the case of Bill Foster

because it was not done on school property, and it was freedom of speech of the student.

In our next court case, Houlihan v. Sussex Technical School District (2007). We have

Houlihan who was a school psychologist for the Sussex Technical High School in the state of

Delaware. The psychologist was complaining to the school district, and her principal about

noncompliance violations with individuals who are about of the, “IDEA”, Individuals with

Disabilities Act. After this, her contract was not renewed and speaking out as an employee
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STUDENTS RIGHTS AND RESPONSBILITIES

resulted in her termination, but she eventually won the court case. She was terminated for efforts

to try to bring the school district back into compliance with “IDEA”. The court ruled with the

plaintiff. This would turn out to be in favor for Foster, for her First Amendment Rights.

The next two following court cases show us our con opinion. Our first one, Kowalski v.

Berkeley County Schools (2011). Kara Kowalski is a senior at a South Carolina high school. A

MySpace page was created heading, “S.A.S.H”, an acronym for Students Against Shay’s Herpes.

Kara invited other people to join from her home computer. One of the students joined from a

school computer. Shay and her parents complained to school officials, then she left because she

felt uncomfortable. Later on, Kara was punished by school officials, which led to Kara suing.

The school ended up winning this case. The court agreed with the decision, it was reasonable to

expect the speech would reach the school or impact the school’s environment.

In our last case, Wynar v. Douglas County School District (2013) We have Landon Wynar,

who is a sophomore at a Nevada high school who reported owning weapons. He then wrote

disturbing messages on Myspace about planning a school shooting on April 20, the anniversary

of the Columbine High School massacre. Landon mentioned a hit list. A lot of friends at the

school grew concerned and notified the officials at the school. Landon told officials that the

posts, which he wrote at home, were a joke. The school board expelled him for 90 days. In result,

Landon’s family sued for Freedom of Speech. The school won this case, it was decided that it

was the school’s responsibility to interpret the messages as a real risk, and it would later disrupt

the school substantively.

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STUDENTS RIGHTS AND RESPONSBILITIES

In my option, I will always believe the school is trying to do the right thing to protect t

out students, and the school. It is our job, as teachers to report anything that we might witness to

be a high risk. I think most First Amendment cases are like this. With everything going on today,

it is crucial that we do our best to prevent any harmful activity. Even if something is a joke,

which it seemed like was the case in some of these court cases, you must always take each case

very seriously, and know you are doing it for all the right reasons.
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References

(J.C. v. Beverley Hills Unified School District, 2009)

(Houlihan v. Sussex Technical School District, 2007)

(Kpwa;ski v. Berkely County School District, 2011)

(Wynar v. Douglas County School District, 2013)

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