Free-speech ruling won't help declining civil discourse

Nowadays you can’t say less freely than behind the iron curtain some decades ago. The whole world has become kind of a dictatorship , not of real dictators in person but of a certain set of only valid opinions and communication restrictions. Try for yourself with a little example, say in North Korea, look, Kim is not a fatty anymore. Now try your neighbor or someone unknown on the street in NYC, you have become and look like a fatty. See, how it all has completely changed into worst nightmare?

A screenshot of the self-deleting message was shown to school officials

Snapchat is private messaging, isn't it? The correct response would be to tell the girl (and other students) to be wary of that there are people out there who will betray her and that private social media are not private, not just for text but also for photos. Instead the school is punishing her for what she thought were and should have been privately expressed thoughts.

A Supreme Court decision saying a school district could not punish a student for profane complaints made on a weekend and off school grounds will not stem the torrent of crude, disrespectful speech in American society.

Can the school district punish teachers and administrators if they don't use a student's preferred pronouns?

It doesn't mean teachers can't punish students for profanity.

Once a kid is done with their classes for the day and outside of the school property the school has no right to say or do anything about what a student says or does. Outside of school a kid is a parents responsibility. I would not let any school official say or do anything to my kid for something my kid did outside of school. None of their darned business.

Teacher sees his student jaywalking in front of school, but off school property.

They should ignore it?

My teacher didn't, I got called into the principal's office.

Did your parents tell the school to myob? My parents were very much that way. Outside of school it was none of the schools or anybody else's business what we did. I was the fat nerdy kid who got picked on a lot and my parents would openly defy the school if I got up enough nerve to fight back, which was infrequent but it happened occasionally. With my little boy I have gone to war with the local district taking it all the way to the State Board of Education and winning. The superintendent here hates my guts. It's mutual. I told him to his face he's gutless, nothing but empty slogans. I stuffed the rule book down the throat of their bossy special ed director, even refused to pick our then Transitional Kindergartener up when they suspended him in violation of state law. You don't suspend 5 yo old kids with autism because they had a melt down. Not legal. You can roll over for these school districts or you stand and fight. I learned in life to be a fighter.

Once a kid is done with their classes for the day and outside of the school property the school has no right to say or do anything about what a student says or does.

It’s ironic that this perspective is posted on a Japanese news site. In Japan, schools consider themselves responsible for kids 24/7. They make all kinds of rules about when and where kids can ride bikes, what times they have to be home, etc. This court case is from the U.S., but, like it or not, Japan takes radically different views on the authority of schools and the rights and privacy of kids and families.

Once a kid is done with their classes for the day and outside of the school property the school has no right to say or do anything about what a student says or does.

Even if the student's actions are directed against the school or other students at the school?

I don't think there is an easy answer to this. Where I want to school, teachers and parents shared responsibility for kids. A legal minefield perhaps, but by and large teachers and parents cooperated in the interest of the kids, and the law played no part. I don't recall any legal challenges.

Even if the student's actions are directed against the school or other students at the school?

If somebody of any age makes a threat, it is a matter for the police to deal with. The schools are not the police. They have absolutely no business disciplining anyone for what they do off campus and on their own time.

If somebody of any age makes a threat, it is a matter for the police to deal with.

If it's a criminal matter, then perhaps. But there are plenty of incidents that fall short of a crime but a parent or teacher should be concerned about. I'm trying imagine a situation where a little kid tells the teacher, "Billy called me fatty and said I smell". Are you saying the teacher's first question should be, "Did this happen inside or outside the school?" If so, then I'm not surprised some teachers have issues with you as a parent.

If it's a criminal matter, then perhaps. But there are plenty of incidents that fall short of a crime but a parent or teacher should be concerned about. I'm trying imagine a situation where a little kid tells the teacher, "Billy called me fatty and said I smell". Are you saying the teacher's first question should be, "Did this happen inside or outside the school?" If so, then I'm not surprised some teachers have issues with you as a parent.

I respectfully disagree. If our kid has a conflict with another kid outside of school that is none of the schools business. Period. If there is a problem inside the school grounds then it is the schools business. And obtw, I am proud of fighting the local district. Too many parents are afraid to stand up for their kids. We forced them to change their ways to the benefit of our kid. When a school principal gives you dirty looks and makes faces at you like a 6yo during an Individual Education Plan meeting because you called them out for suspending an autistic child against state and Federal law, then I have zero respect for that miserable principal.