Tim Cushing writes:
The Appeals Court of Kansas has upheld a lower court’s decision finding it beyond the reach of a university to expel a student for off-campus behavior.
Beneath this logical conclusion are some not-so-pretty facts. The origin of the lawsuit is a “bad breakup” that resulted in criminal charges for the former boyfriend, Navid Yeasin.
Read more on TechDirt and then trot on over to Technology & Marketing Law Blog to read Venkat Balasubramani’s comments and analysis of the case.
Over all, and as unpleasant as Yeasin’s conduct was, it’s a good ruling if you don’t want schools over-reaching into what happens off-campus.
On the k-12 level, schools have been cut a lot of slack in that regard, as if they can show that off-campus conduct or speech has the potential to seriously disrupt what happens in school, they can discipline students for what is said or done off-campus. Some advocates believe k-12 schools are going too far in that regard, while others seem to want schools to do what parents may not be doing – monitor and clamp down on what may be inappropriate online conduct. This advocate does not like the over-reach.