Layshock v. Hermitage Sch. Dist., No. 07-4465

In plaintiffs' 42 U.S.C. section 1983 action arising after defendant-school district punished their son for creating a fake internet "profile" of his high school principal on MySpace.com, district court's judgment is affirmed where: 1) district court correctly ruled that the school district's response to the student's expressive conduct violated the First Amendment guarantee of free expression as allowing the school to punish him for conduct he engaged in using his grandmother's computer while at his grandmother's house would create an unseemly and dangerous precedent; 2) the school cannot punish the student merely because his speech reached inside the school; and 3) district court correctly concluded that the parents have not shown how their liberty interest was infringed by the School District's violation of their son's First Amendment right of expression.     

Read Layshock v. Hermitage Sch. Dist., No. 07-4465

Appellate Information

On Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of New Pennsylvania

Opinion Filed February 4, 2010

Judges

Before:  McKee, Smith and Roth, Circuit Judges

Opinion by Circuit Judge McKee

Counsel:

For Appellant:  Anthony G. Sanchez, Andrews & Price

For Appellee:  Witold J. Walczak, American Civil Liberties Foundation