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2009 U. Ill. L. Rev. 1623 (2009)
Myspace, Yourspace, Ourspace: Student Cyberspeech, Bullying, and Their Impact on School Discipline

handle is hein.journals/unilllr2009 and id is 1633 raw text is: MYSPACE, YOURSPACE, OURSPACE: STUDENT CYBERSPEECH, BULLYING, AND THEIR IMPACT ON SCHOOL DISCIPLINE EMILY K. KERKHOF When a student engages in bullying, tensions tend to arise be- tween that student's freedom of speech -guaranteed in the First Amendment-and the school's duty to provide its students with an environment that is safe and conducive to learning. Bullying on the Internet is no exception. Although several Supreme Court decisions address students' free speech rights, none have dealt with student speech on the Internet. Thus, lower courts have struggled to apply the Supreme Court's standards to cases involving student online speech. When called upon to determine the extent of school administrators' authority to discipline students for inappropriate online speech, lower courts do not reach consistent results. The author recognizes the in- terests in conflict- the interest in speaking freely, without government interference, as well as the interest in educating and protecting stu- dents- and recommends that courts apply the material and substan- tial disruption standard to best balance these interests. The author argues that it would not be suitable for courts to look to other fac- tors-including the location of the speech and whether the student- speaker intended to bring the speech onto campus-in the context of student speech on the Internet. I. INTRODUCTION In a society as technologically dependent as the one in which we live, it is not surprising to learn that as of August 2006, over 100 million people had joined the social networking site MySpace.1 Another popular networking Web site, Facebook, subscribed its 30 millionth user in July 2007.2 MySpace offers subscribers the opportunity to talk with friends, meet other people, interact with family, or network with business people 1. Abbi Adest, Rupert Murdoch Comments on Fox Interactive's Growth, SEEKING ALPHA, Aug. 9, 2006, http://seekingalpha.com/article/15237-rupert-murdoch-comments-on-fox-interactive-s- growth. 2. Progressive Policy Institute, Facebook Added Its 30 Millionth Subscriber Yesterday, http:// www.ppionline.org/ppi-ci.cfm?knlgAreaID=108&subsecID=900003&contentID=254388 (last visited Aug. 27,2009). 1623

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