Supreme Court debates student free speech rights on social media

The Supreme Court wrestled with how to balance free speech rights of teenagers on social media with the needs of schools to maintain order and discipline.

The U.S. Supreme Court wrestled openly on Monday with how to balance the free speech rights of American teenagers on social media with the needs of schools to maintain order and discipline in classrooms and on playing fields. "I'm frightened to death of writing a standard," Justice Stephen Breyer said in a nod to the case's significant stakes for schools, parents and students. The justices heard oral arguments in an appeal by a Pennsylvania school district seeking to reverse a sweeping lower court decision that said what students say off campus after hours is strictly off-limits for punishment by school officials. They were wary of that stark standard even as most were also uneasy with the idea of schools policing student speech unfettered, after hours.