Two hundred and thirty-seven years ago, James Madison created the Bill of Rights, which included one of our most important rights: the right to free speech.
This right, however, has been put to the side when it comes to students. According to splc.org, in 2017 Sophomore Brandi Levy at Mahanoy High School in Pennsylvania, failed to make the school’s varsity cheer team. Frustrated, she decided to post, off-campus and on the weekend, a picture of her flipping off the camera and a caption that went along the lines of: ‘F— school, F— softball, F— cheer, F— everything.’
A cheer teammate saw the post and shared it with the coach, who kicked Levy off the cheer team for the year. In court, Levy argued that they violated her right to off-campus speech, to which the school argued back, saying that a geographical line for off-campus speech doesn’t really exist, and they should have a wider authority to punish students’ speech. In the end, the court ruled in favor of Levy, saying the school violated her First Amendment right.
Jon Wymore, who is surviving his first year as a school resource officer, has already contributed immensely to this school.
“One of the things we try to do is mentoring,” Wymore said.
When there are students who are having issues at school, regarding decision-making, Wymore is there to step up and help. Along with this, Wymore makes it clear that he values strong relationships with students by bringing in the department’s wellness dog, Bentley.
“I come around with [Bentley] a lot and just build relationships with people,” Wymore said.
While Wymore does not feel legally qualified to share legal advice, he still has very knowledgeable thoughts to share.
“I think that most people [At West] are pretty caring towards kids,” Wymore said.
Wymore strongly believes that the teachers at West would not violate students’ rights. Even though this is true, it doesn’t mean students can say anything they would like— especially something that could be damaging.
“We have the freedom to say whatever we want,” says Wymore, “but… we [can’t] say things like we’re trying to incite violence.”
Saying things in public that incite violence is not protected by the First Amendment.
“Let’s say I go to a Heritage Mall and I yell, ‘Fire, there’s a fire,’ and there’s no real fire, then I’m causing panic and public alarm, and that would be a crime,” said Wymore.
Even online, people can’t cause public alarm, whether with threats or other topics, for the safety of others. Though this situation with Levy may seem scary, as Wymore has explained, we are part of a school with caring teachers and staff who follow specific freedom-of-speech rules that allow students to express themselves safely.
“We are, to my knowledge,” Wymore said, “the only country that has all of these rights that are protected.”