In March 2020, Paulding County School District (PCSD), like most nationwide, closed its schools in response to the coronavirus health emergency. Since that time, school districts have wrestled with the question of whether and how to reopen for the fall semester in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Paulding County School District decided to reopen and bring most students back into schools beginning the week of August 3. Students are not required to wear masks, which the District deemed a personal choice, although it strongly recommended students wear masks. Two pictures were posted on Twitter depicting a hallway in North Paulding High School on August 3 and 4 and each showed students crowded together in the hallway, with few wearing masks or other face coverings. These pictures went “viral” on social media and were widely covered in the press as depicting a “chaotic first week back in U.S. classrooms.”
Although the Superintendent of PCSD acknowledged that the photos and the conditions they depicted “did not look good” and that adjustments to school operations might be necessary, the student whistleblowers who publicized the pictures were suspended, with one student given a five-day out-of-school suspension for violating rules that limit the use of cellphones in the school. Additionally, North Paulding High’s principal made an announcement to students that “[a]nything that’s going on social media that’s negative or alike without permission, photography, that’s video or anything, there will be consequences[.]” Although the student’s five-day suspension was subsequently rescinded following a public outcry, The Rutherford Institute is urging school administrators to renounce any threat of disciplinary action against students for social media posts that relate to matters of public concern lest they run afoul of the First Amendment’s safeguards for free speech and other expressive activity.
The Rutherford Institute, a nonprofit civil liberties organization, provides legal assistance at no charge to individuals whose constitutional rights have been threatened or violated and educates the public on a wide spectrum of issues affecting their freedoms.
The Rutherford Institute’s letter to the Superintendent of Paulding County School District and the Principal of North Paulding High School is available at www.rutherford.org.
Source: https://bit.ly/33JhU2t
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