Lynn Fultz
Frank LoMonte, executive director of the Student Press Law Center and former journalist, spoke as the first Professional-in-Residence of the year Sept. 16. Coinciding with Constitution Day, LoMonte addressed the subject "Digital Freedom: A Look at Issues Affecting Student Free Speech on the Internet."
“We’re focusing on the First Amendment because it is necessary,” said Warren Watson, director of J-Ideas, Ball State’s First Amendment advocacy group that was responsible for bringing in LoMonte.
“Incoming college freshman are completely clueless when it comes to the First Amendment,” Watson said. “Seventy-five percent of high school students polled admit they take the First Amendment for granted, or simply don’t care. Fifty percent think that the government has the right to censor the Internet.”
LoMonte discussed how the Internet represents a new frontier in student free speech. “The next generation of student speech litigation is what can and can’t be said online,” he said.
Courts are now setting precedents that are expanding the rights of schools to off-campus speech and, directly, on-campus press speech.
Two cases that have caught the attention of the SPLC have set conflicting precedents, LoMonte said.
In Connecticut, the case of Doninger v. Niehoff resulted in a ruling where Doninger, a student, was subject to punishment from her high school for content she posted online in a blog concerning a disagreement she had with the school principal.
“We think that, again, it’s a dangerous overreach if you let the school say ‘you can’t talk about school affairs on a blog off-campus,’” LoMonte said. “Then what you are really saying is that students don’t ever have First Amendment rights.”
In Pennsylvania, the case Layshock v. Hermitage School District, which the SPLC aided, ruled in favor of Layshock, a high school student who made a parody MySpace profile of his principal.
“The District Court of Pennsylvania agreed with [Layshock’s argument] saying, ‘You are right. When you are off campus, on your own time, on your own property, using your own computer, you have the full benefit of the First Amendment, and school can’t regulate that speech,’” LoMonte said. “This case is now in appeals, and if this case gets decided like [the SPLC] hopes it gets decided, you now have two neighboring circuits that have very opposite views of the reach of the First Amendment. And that’s when the Supreme Court gets involved.”
Watson, in his closing remarks, reminded students that they’re “only a few decisions away from a completely different political environment, and it’s wonderful to be an American and to be able to speak up.”
“I hope that through the lecture, students will begin to think more about digital free speech,” he said. “The first reaction of people who are officials, whenever a new form of expression comes along, is to seek to censor it. I think LoMonte was able to give us a perspective that the best thing to do is learn how to use it responsibly rather than squash it.”