Burlington Student Speech Case Not the Last Word

The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held this week that school officials in the Town of Burlington could not be sued for money damages even if they violated the constitutional rights of Avery Doninger, a high school student who called the school principal a "douchebag" in a blog written from her home.

The Court did not reach the issue of whether it was unconstitutional under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution for school officials to prohibit Ms. Doninger from running for class secretary or to prevent her from wearing a T-shirt supporting her cause in the school election assembly as punishments for her blog comments.

Sandy Staub, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut, which filed a brief with the court as amicus curiae ("friend of the court"), noted that the determination of the constitutionality of actions by school officials to place these types of restrictions on students based on such off-campus speech must await another case.