Tinker Supreme Court Case Analysis

For nearly half a century, the Supreme Court’s decision in Tinker has been applied to numerous cases involving student speech. However, in recent years, the Supreme Court has been faced with the difficult decision of how to apply it to online, off-campus speech. So what direction are the courts currently heading to give clarity to school leaders on how to approach discipline of students’ off-campus, online speech? The answer… is very little.

One case we briefly mentioned in class this semester involved a Mississippi high school student who uploaded a personal rap song on his Facebook page and YouTube channel. In his song, the student names two coaches from his high school and makes claims of improper sexual relations with female students,