Do schools have the right to monitor student's digital footprint?

Do schools have the right to punish students for conversations made on social media?  This is a good question that is tough to answer.  An article, Suit: Sterling High School overstepped bounds in girl's tweets penalty (Courier Post, March 18, 2014), deals with this topic.  The argument surrounding this case deals with the use of social media outside of school.  Do school officials have the right to monitor a student’s digital footprint?  New Jersey recently passed legislation requiring public school districts to teach responsible social media etiquette starting in 2015.  New Jersey, required by federal law, has an established anti bullying policy that includes cyberbullying. 

The gist of the article deals with the punishment a student received based on information she tweeted.  The article does not say what the student tweeted about the school official but it does say the school is punishing the student for comments made about smoking before school.  Her lawyer contends that the smoking issue is just a cover-up and the student is being punished for the tweets about school officials.  The student’s tweets stems from a two day suspensions she received after she was caught “using a cellphone in a hallway to engage in an agitated argument with her mother, then was insubordinate to a teacher who intervened.” 

Back to the question, do schools have the right to monitor a student’s digital footprint outside of the school?  Without knowing what the student tweeted it is hard to say if the student should be punished in the manner that she is.  It is also hard to form an opinion without knowing if the school has a written policy pertaining to this matter.  The article does imply that there are other discipline issues that occurred before this infraction and that the school is trying to get a handle on the situation before it involves other students.  That being said the school is between a rock and a hard place.  If they do nothing they get blamed for raising a group of “bad” kids, if they take action the parents sues them for trying to teach students respect.  The school is in a no win situation.  The important lesson we learn from this is that what you put out on social media is public and that you need to be careful as to what you say.    

Link to the article:  http://www.courierpostonline.com/article/20140318/NEWS01/303180039/Suit-Sterling-High-School-overstepped-bounds-girl-s-tweets-penalty

Link to NJ bullying laws:  http://www.stopbullying.gov/laws/new-jersey.html   

Link to article about teaching social media:  http://articles.philly.com/2014-03-17/news/48269211_1_richard-guerry-social-media-college-students