I do hope so. I have had great concerns as School Administrations have incrementally increased their reach and control far from the schools from years ago to the point where it seems that the Edu-Industrial Complex believes it is responsible for their students (vs Parents for their own children). Witness the growth of pre-school day-care, post-school day-care, breakfast / lunch / dinners provided 365/year, health clinics, abortions when needed, and daycare for the kids’ kids. With the advent of the Bullying laws, that reach was extended to any speech any where in real space and cyberspace.
In effect, Parents were being stripped of control and responsibility in one action after another. Who knew it would be the First Amendment and the Third District Court that may have broken that lock that was rusting shut on parents?
From FIRE, the "money line" and great Executive Summary:
Is there a place where a student can go that’s far enough away from school grounds to allow that student to speak freely online? Every single one of the 14 judges on that court said ‘yes.’
Background:
Yesterday, the full court for the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit issued two simultaneous opinions to resolve how much control grade schools and high schools may exercise over their students’ off-campus, online speech. In Layshock v. Hermitage School District and J.S. v. Blue Mountain School District, the 14-judge court delivered two landmark victories for free speech, holding that school officials cannot "reach into a child’s home and control his/her actions there to the same extent that it can control that child when he/she participates in school sponsored activities." In the cases, two students had been disciplined for creating parody MySpace profiles mocking their respective principals. The Third Circuit held that schools cannot punish students’ online speech simply because it is vulgar, lewd, or offensive.
Excerpts:
The full Third Circuit convened en banc to resolve this conflicting in-circuit precedent. Yesterday, the court decided in both cases that schools may not punish online, off-campus speech to the same extent that they may when dealing with in-school speech. The court thus concluded that the Supreme Court decision in Bethel School District No. 403 v. Fraser, 478 U.S. 675 (1986), which held that a high school may suspend a student for "lewd, indecent, or offensive speech and conduct" when such behavior conflicts with "essential lessons of civil, mature conduct," is inapplicable to online speech created off campus…
Gov. John "Can’t do nuttin’" Lynch bowed to reality and has decided to let the "controversial" new budget become law without vetoing or signing it – deciding to do nothing. With veto-proof margins by Republicans in the House and Senate, there is nothing that he could do – and he could not muster sufficient courage to make a stand and even issue a symbolic message from the Democrat side.