Kara Kowalski Case Summary

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Kowalski v. Berkeley County Schools In 2005, Kara Kowalski, a senior at Musselman High School in the Berkeley County School District, created a MySpace page and called it “S.A.S.H. This website was created with the intention to ridicule a classmate, Shay (JSLIWKA, 2012). Kara Kowalski used her personal home computer to create the MySpace page and invited about one hundred classmates to join the page. Two dozen of her classmates accepted the request to join the page (Batterton, 2011). Even though most students connected through home, some accessed the MySpace page using the computers at school. Ray Parsons was the first student to join the page after Kowalski’s request and posted offensive comments and pictures of Shay (JSLIWKA, 2012). That …show more content…

After central office allowed them to, the school conducted an investigation interviewing all students involved in the MySpace page (Batterton, 2011). Kara Kowalski admitted to creating the page, but denied posting any photographs. Because Kara Kowalski’s site broke the student code of conduct and was a direct violation of the school’s policy against harassment, bullying, and intimidation, she was suspendered from school for five days. Her consequence also included and a 90-day social suspension (Batterton, 2011). She was not able to continue with cheerleading, attend dances, or participate in that year’s “Queen of Charm” contest, having been elected “Queen” herself the previous year (JSLIWKA, …show more content…

The District Court recognized that the US Constitution protects free speech and expression, but at schools, free speech needs to be held to a different standard. School officials must ensure that school environments are safe and welcoming to all students (Batterton, 2011). Thus, public school administrators have a compelling interest to regulate speech that is considered student harassment and bullying. This is well established in the Student Code of Conduct that students receive each year at the beginning of the school year (Batterton, 2011). Still, Kara Kowalski argued that she was protected under the First Amendment because this did not happen at school, but it was sufficiently connected to the school environment. According to the District Court, it was expected for the content of the page to reach the school (Batterton,

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