A US teenager’s rant led to her getting kicked off of her cheerleader team has reached the Supreme Court.
Brandi Levy sent a full blasphemy post to her friends on Snapchat in 2017. In it, she was venting her frustration with her school and cheerleading.
But when the coaches at the Pennsylvania school discovered the post and banned her from the squad for a year.
The case will determine whether schools have the right to punish pupils for what they say about the campus.
It is viewed as a significant test for the US Constitution’s First Amendment, which guards the right to free speech.
The argument in the case is yet to begin on Wednesday.
Then 14, Ms. Levy posted the snap when she was upset about not being picked for the school’s cheerleading team. A snap is a combination of photos and texts that disappears after 24 hours in the app.
While at the Cocoa Hut, she posted in on Saturday, a 24-hour convenience store at Mahanoy City. The shop is not a property of part of the school.
The snap showed Ms. Levy with her middle finger raised, while her caption contained a four-letter swear word. Her fingers were directed towards school, softball, cheerleading, and everything generally.
The snap was then screenshotted by a friend and shown to another pupil, who was the daughter of Mahanoy coaches.
The coaches at Mahanoy Area High School then suspended Ms. Levy from the cheerleading team for a year.
Shen then accused the Mahanoy Area School District, arguing the decision has exploited her First Amendment right to free speech.
Ms. Levy, now 18, says the photo was posted from an off-campus location on a non-school day. It means that the school didn’t have the right to discipline her for her actions.
When Ms. Levy’s case reached the court last year, the Philadelphia court ruled in her favor. It said the 1969 ruling did not give school officials the authority to discipline pupils for things they say off-campus.
After the Court of Appeal ruling last year, the school district asked the Supreme Court to take up the case.
It argues that in recent times it has become more critical. As pupil learning remotely due to the pandemic has blurred the line between on and off-campus communications.
