— In New York, the United States District Court held that school officials did not infringe on the First Amendment free speech rights of a student when they disciplined him for an off-campus posting on Snapchat. The case arose out of an incident when the student, along with three fellow students, mimicked the murder of George Floyd by a police officer with a photo that, “depicts (the student) lying on the ground while his friend …kneels over him.” The student posted the photo to his Snapchat story with the caption “Cops got another,” where it was visible “to all of his Snapchat friends—approximately 60 to 100 people, including a good amount of students at Livingston Manor High School.” The court upheld the discipline of suspending the student from school and extracurricular activities, distinguishing the 2021 case of Mahanoy Area Sch. Dist. v. B. L. by & through Levy where the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the suspension from a junior varsity cheerleading squad of a student based on her use of profanity in an off-campus social media post violated the First Amendment. The court stated that, “here, the facts are distinguishable from Mahanoy, in which the Court found no evidence in the record of the sort of ‘substantial disruption’ of a school activity or a threatened harm to the rights of others that might justify the school’s action…the Court finds not only that District personnel reasonably portended a substantial disruption given the response to the photos the same night they were posted, but also that Defendants have established actual disruption based on the events occurring at the school the day after the photo was posted.” As a result, the First Amendment did not apply because schools have “an interest in maintaining order within its schools, promoting tolerance and respect, and ensuring students feel comfortable and secure within the school environment (and) when the impact of a student’s speech spills into school grounds in a manner so instantaneous and significant, the speech falls outside of the First Amendment’s ordinary protection.” Leroy v. Livingston Manor Central School District
— In Washington State, a student was killed in a high school shooting in Seattle that is triggering a debate over the decision of the school board to remove campus police from the school district. The deceased student was attempting to break up a fight.
— In Massachusetts, officials in Marion are deploying a comfort dog for students at a local elementary school. The canine “will help with de-escalation and provide comfort to children and staff in need who may be experiencing or have experienced trauma.”
— In Kansas, the Kansas legislature introduced House Bill 2641. Its provisions would require all school districts in the state to prohibit the use of cellphones during school hours. “Exceptions would be made for educational purposes authorized by a teacher or administrator and to accommodate medical needs, special education commitments and emergency incidents.”