SAM 6050: Legal Aspects of Sport
Matt Cox
Freedom of Speech &
Social Media
@coxmt90: 11 days till graduation #graduation #nomoreschool
Facebook has been around since 2004Twitter has been around since 2006Over 974 million existing Twitter accounts*
37 percent of twitter users are between the ages of 18 and 25. (Duggan, Ellison, Lampe, Lenhart, & Madden, 2015)
Facebook claims 1.23 billion monthly active users*
History of Social Media
*(Sherman, 2014)
High schools are using Twitter to give their athletes recognition, in-game updates or final scores.
Good Tweets
Western Kentucky University suspended star running back Antonio Andrews after he tweeted critical comments about the team’s fans. (Antonio Andrews Barred for Twitter Post, 2011)
Sexually graphic and racially insensitive tweets led to high school cornerback Yuri Wright being expelled from his private school and losing a Michigan football scholarship offer. (Woods, 2012)
Bad Tweets College Students
Harper v. Scappoose (OR) School District Social Media Policy
Rosario v. Clark County School District Profanity filled tweets about his coach and
school administratorsPrivacy Rights
Kowalski v. Berkeley County Schools Internet bullying
High School Cases
First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution "Congress shall make no law … abridging the
freedom of speech.” Judiciary has struggled to define speech and
expression and the extent to which freedom of speech should be protected "The most stringent protection of free speech
would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theater and causing a panic” Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr
Freedom of Speech
Freedom of Speech is a constitutional right, and applies if there is a state actor involved. a person who is acting on behalf of a
governmental body include public school districts, city and county
governments, police officers, and municipal recreation depts.
Freedom of Speech
Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School District, 1969(a) substantial disruption of the school environment(b) an invasion of the rights of others.
Bethel School District v. Fraser, 1986 "vulgar" speech
Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier, 1988 "educators do not offend the First Amendment by
exercising editorial control over the style and content of student speech in school-sponsored expressive activities so long as their actions are reasonably related to legitimate pedagogical concerns”
Free Speech Rights of Students in a Public Schools
Harper v. Scappoose (OR) School District Settled because policy to broad
Rosario v. Clark County School District Proving Off Campus and Disruption in the class roomPrivacy of Cyberspace
Kowalski v. Berkeley County Schools Not a school related activityPrivate out-of-school speech
Relevant Legal Cases
Multiple public Facebook posts where he threatened local law enforcement, his estranged wife, an FBI agent, and a kindergarten class.
whether conviction of threatening another person under 18 requires proof of the defendant's subjective intent to threaten
would “reasonable person” regard the statement as threatening
Elonis v. United States
(Vara, 2014).
State Actor – Public and Private Nature of students speech - influence on
the school environment Social Media Policy- a precisely crafted,
narrowly written policy that imposes sanctions for social media postings
Privacy on CyberspaceDirect threat to the safety of the students
Legal Opinion
"Respectable Use Policy"
Lower court rulings have varied widely, and the Supreme Court has declined three times this term to review similar student off-campus speech
Very young in our legal system
Legal Opinion
About Twitter, Inc. | About. (2015). Retrieved April 20, 2015, from https://about.twitter.com/company Antonio Andrews barred for Twitter post. (2011, October 10). Retrieved April 18, 2015, from http://espn.go.com/college-
football/story/_/id/7085727/western-kentucky-hilltoppers-suspend-antonio-andrews-comments-twitter Bethel School District. No. 403 v. Fraser, (1986), Broussard v. School Board of the City of Norfolk, (1992), Costa-Lima, B. (2014, June 20). Oregon school district settles lawsuit over dance team's controversial social media policy.
Retrieved April 24, 2015, from http://www.splc.org/article/2014/06/oregon-school-district-settles-lawsuit-over-dance-teams-controversial-social-media-policy
Duggan, M., Ellison, N. B., Lampe, C., Lenhart, A., & Madden, M. (2015, January 09). Demographics of Key Social Networking Platforms. Retrieved April 21, 2015, from http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/01/09/demographics-of-key-social-networking-platforms-2/
Elonis v. United States (2014), Green, L. (2015, January 8). 2014 Sports Law Year-in-Review. Retrieved April 24, 2015, from
https://www.nfhs.org/articles/2014-sports-law-year-in-review/ Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier, (1988), Schenck v. United States, (1919), Shaukat, I. O. (2008). Internet Bullying Not Protected by the First Amendment. Retrieved April 24, 2014, from
http://www.mddefensecounsel.org/cases/kowalski.html Sherman, E. (2014, April 14). Many Twitter users don't tweet, finds report. Retrieved April 20, 2015, from
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/many-twitter-users-dont-tweet-finds-report/ State actor. (2015). Retrieved April 25, 2015, from http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/State+actor Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School District, 1969 Vara, V. (2014, December 03). Elonis v. United States and the Nuances of Threats on Facebook - The New Yorker. Retrieved
April 25, 2015, from http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/nuances-threat-facebook Von Zeipel, E. B. (2013, September 10). Nevada District Court Finds No Reasonable Expectation of Privacy in Private Twitter
Posts. Retrieved April 24, 2015, from http://www.tradesecretslaw.com/2013/09/articles/social-media-2/nevada-district-court-finds-no-reasonable-expectation-of-privacy-in-public-twitter-posts/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A%2BTradingSecrets%2B%28Trading%2BSecrets%29
Woods, S. (2012, January 2). Wright or wrong, tweets cost HS football player a college Scholorships. Retrieved April 18, 2015, from http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/high-school/yuri-wright-expelled-don-bosco-prep-school-loses-football-scholarship-michigan-racially-sexually-graphic-twitter-posts-article-1.1009556
Zhao, E. (2012, April 3). Austin Carroll, Indiana Student Expelled For Profane Tweet, Thrust Into National Free-Speech Debate. Retrieved April 24, 2015, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/03/students-profane-tweet-st_n_1400695.html
References
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