"We have A Zero-Tolerance Policy": High School Student "Punished" For Expressing Support For The 'Cornell 7'

Authored by Jonathan Turley via JonathanTurley.org,

We have previously discussed high school administrators and teachers who engage in censorship and speech regulation, often targeting religious and conservative students. These cases cost school districts millions in court costs, but the school officials never seem to face any consequences. In California, Piner High School has joined this ignoble effort, punishing the high school football captain for expressing support for the "Cornell 7" on his own Instagram page. Other students then protested not to support free speech but to demand further punishment for the student. I wonder where they learned that repressive view of free speech?

According to media reports, the unnamed student wrote "Free the Cornell Seven" on his personal Instagram account and the school called him out. As should be obvious to any teacher or administrator, this is entirely protected speech under the First Amendment. The student was not discussing the school, calling for some school disruption or destruction of property, or encouraging violence. He was stating his view that defendants who have not been tried, let alone convicted, are innocent.

This case has divided the country with many politicians and pundits declaring the guilt of these students before any charges are actually filed against them. A prosecutor previously declined to take the case to a grand jury due to conflict statements from the alleged victim.

Rather than acknowledge the serious free speech concerns raised by the school's reported actions, Santa Rosa City school's public information officer, Patrick Gannon, issued a virtue-signaling statement on how it will not tolerate students expressing such thoughts on their personal social media accounts, or presumably publicly in their private time:

"Action was taken by the school and the district, and we're continuing to have conversations. We don't tolerate making light of sexual assault. That's why we have a zero-tolerance policy."

Whatever success the school has had on basic subjects like English and Math, it has clearly taught the student body to disregard the free speech of others. The football team reportedly forfeited a game after 200 students walked out to the "Santa Rosa City Schools district offices to demand accountability and greater support for students speaking out against sexual violence."

There was no statement from Principal Andrea Correia or the school denying the reported punishment. Instead, Gannon met with the 200 students and, instead of discussing the importance of free speech and due process, said the school "wants them to know that accountability and safety are top priorities."

Students are demanding further punishment of the student for expressing his views on the case. Obviously, if the same students had posted "Justice for Jane Doe at Cornell" he would have been celebrated rather than punished.

In 1969, the Supreme Court famously declared that students do not "shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate." However, since that iconic case, federal courts have often given short shrift to the free speech rights of students.

As we have previously discussed, teachers around the country have become notorious as speech commissars who bar expressions deemed divisive or intolerant. That often includes any conservative or religious speech.

An elementary school in Kansas came under fire after Arbor Creek Elementary Principal Melissa Snell stopped the wearing of shirts reading "Freedom," which became popular after the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

In another case, U.S. District Court Judge Christopher Boyko ruled in Ohio that students could be barred from wearing "Let's Go Brandon" shirts - a coded political expression criticizing the media and former President Joe Biden. Other courts have also upheld such censorship by teachers, who claim that the expression is a substitute for a vulgar expression chanted by crowds ("F- Joe Biden"). But these shirts do not contain vulgarity. Rather, the expression is used as a defiant reference to the media bias that led to the original substitution of the words, allegedly to protect Biden - it is a "Yankee Doodling" of the political and media establishment.

Judge Karen Nelson Moore joined Sixth Circuit Judge John Nalbandian in a deeply flawed holding that, under the "vulgarity exception," the action was constitutional. The Supreme Court was asked to hear the "Let's Go Brandon" case, but recently declined to hear the case. It was a very disappointing denial from the Court for many of us in the free speech community.

In the California case, the underlying law is clear. Any punishment of this student would be a glaring violation of the First Amendment. The student can go to court to have any such actions set aside. However, it is equally clear that the administrators and teachers responsible for such actions will face no accountability.

The "zero tolerance policy" at Piner High School appears to refer to the exercise of free speech by those with unpopular or minority viewpoints. It is certainly a preview of higher education, where viewpoint intolerance and ideological orthodoxy are the norm. This chilling lesson has clearly taken hold at Piner High School.

Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the New York Times best-selling author of "Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution."