Kowalski v. Berkeley County Schools
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| Kowalski v. Berkeley County Schools | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Court | United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit |
| Full case name | Kowalski v. Berkeley County Schools |
| Argued | March 25 2011 |
| Decided | July 27 2011 |
| Citation | 652 F.3d 565 |
| Case history | |
| Procedural history | Affirmed decision for the defendants from 2009 WL 10675108 (N.D. W.Va. 2000) |
| Holding | |
| The defendants did not violate the plaintiff's First Amendment free speech rights. | |
| Case opinions | |
| Majority | Paul V. Niemeyer |
| Laws applied | |
| First Amendment to the United States Constitution | |
Kowalski v. Berkeley County Schools, 652 F.3d 565 (2011), was a freedom of speech case of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit concerning the online speech of a public school student. The appeals court affirmed the decision of the district court that the student's suspension for online harassment of a fellow student was constitutional.
When Kara Kowalski was a senior at Musselman High School in Berkeley County, West Virginia, school officials suspended her for five days for creating and maintaining a MySpace profile called S.A.S.H., which Kowalski claimed stood for "Students Against Sluts Herpes". A classmate claimed that the acronym actually stood for "Students Against Shay's Herpes", and that the page was largely dedicated to ridiculing a fellow student (known only as Shay N.). Kowalski was suspended after Shay N. and her parents complained to the principal of the school.[1]
Kowalski sued the school district under the United States civil code,[2] claiming that her suspension was a retaliation for her speech and therefore a violation of her First Amendment rights. Kowalski also claimed that the school's code of conduct deprived her of due process rights to appeal her suspension, while the suspension caused her emotional distress.[1]
Kowalski argued that her use of the MySpace page was not a school-related activity and her expression did not occur on school grounds. Therefore it was "private out-of-school speech" that did not cause an in-school disruption of the type that officials could restrict per the Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District precedent. The school district argued that Kowalski could be suspended because her speech specifically targeted her fellow student Shay N., possibly disrupting that student's education experience. The school also cited its own code of conduct that forbade harassment of fellow students.[1]
In 2009, the district court ruled that the suspension did not violate Kowaski's constitutional rights because it caused in-school disruptions and invited harassment of other students. Kowalski appealed this decision to the Fourth Circuit.[1]