Tullahoma, a small city on I-24 between Nashville and Chattanooga, may seem like an unlikely place for a big First Amendment challenge, but for several years one has played out there — and mid-January brought a victory for free speech among high school students.
It all started in August 2022 when Tullahoma High School administrators suspended a student for posing three memes lampooning then-Principal Jason Quick. The student, identified only as “I.P.” in court filings, posted the images on his personal Instagram account the preceding summer.
The Knoxville News Sentinel posted the images on Jan. 13, and to some observers they definitely fell into the “you’ve got to be kidding me” category for thin-skinned reasons to face school suspension.
The first shows Quick holding a box of vegetables with the caption “My brotha.” I.P. reposted it from his father’s home in Alabama during summer vacation. The second image, reposted during a family vacation to Italy, shows Quick as an anime maid with cat ears. The final image has Quick’s head superimposed over cartoon characters.
Thus, the 17-year-old just entering his senior year was suspended for three days, reduced from the original five, for violating school-district policies against social media posts whether at home or school that “result in the embarrassment, demeaning, or discrediting of any student or staff,” and another provision that prohibits social media activity “unbecoming of a Wildcat.” Many legal experts would that argue both standards are indefensibly broad and fluid.
I.P. and family sued. Soon after, the courts dismissed the case against Quick and another administrator as the school district agreed to expunge the suspension and repeal the policy. The court threw out eight of nine claims against Tullahoma City Schools, citing qualified immunity for the administrators.
The one First Amendment claim, however, remained and was heard at the Howard Baker United States Courthouse in Knoxville. The jury ruled in favor of the student on Jan. 15, but failing to see substantial injury awarded $1 in nominal damages.
The Tullahoma case has many similarities to a recent lawsuit filed in Smith County by a Gordonsville High School sophomore. He is suing the board of education and two faculty members because he received a year’s suspension following comments he made on a personal Instagram account.
Since 1969, the U.S. Supreme Court has held that “substantial disruption” of school activity should be the yardstick for when public school officials may discipline students for their expression. That substantial disruption test was re-affirmed by the Court as recently as 2021 when school officials were blocked from punishing a cheerleader for a vulgar Snapchat post. So, for example, a protest walkout during the school day would be a substantial disruption of the school day and the educational mission; wearing a protest ribbon for a cause likely would not be.
The Court, however, takes a very different approach to free speech when it comes to student publications. In a controversial 1988 case, Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier, a school principal, arguably the de facto publisher of the school newspaper, removed two pages from an edition of the paper because they contained articles about teen pregnancy and the effect of divorce on young people. The principal was concerned that even though students or parents were not explicitly named, enough identifying information existed to impinge on their privacy. The Court could have ruled, as the appellate court had, that the school paper had the qualities of a public forum — and the principal as an agent of the state had an obligation not to interfere. Instead, the Court sided with the principal’s argument.
In response, the Student Press Law Center has launched New Voices, a movement to change state law to offer greater protection to the student press. At last count 18 states have passed laws giving greater protection to student publications, and several more have bills in the works. Tennessee is not one of those states. The group has model legislation ready for Tennessee and others to join in this effort.
Mark Harmon is a professor of journalism and media at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Republished by permission under a Creative Commons 4 license by Tennessee Lookout.
See also: Rights of Students
The Free Speech Center newsletter offers a digest of First Amendment and news-media news every other week. Subscribe for free here: https://bit.ly/3kG9uiJ