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Hostile Educational Environments: On The Apparent First Amendment Barrier To Cyberbullying Punishments, Ari E. Waldman

Ari E Waldman

This Article is one in a series about bullying and cyberbullying in schools. I argue that the proper analysis for a First Amendment challenge to school discipline for off-campus misuse of the Internet to harm or offend a member of the school community depends on the nature of the offending behavior. For students who are punished for a single incident – what I will call cyberattacking – a Tinker analysis makes sense. Except in extraordinary circumstances, the First Amendment should immunize these single-incident attackers from punishment. For students who engage in a pattern of repeated incidents of cyberattacking – what …