School shootings continue to occupy the news and conversation, even in conversation by public school students. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit recently reiterated that such students do have First Amendment Free Speech rights, reviving a lawsuit by a Virginia public high school student disciplined for allegedly making “non-threatening statements” about the “horrific mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida” a day after the tragedy in 2018.
According to the unanimous panel opinion, taking the allegations of the lawsuit at face value, “the student engaged in a factual conversation with his peers about a current event that is uniquely salient to the lives of American teenagers, a school shooting. Schools cannot silence such student speech on the basis that it communicates controversial or upsetting ideas. To do so would be incompatible with the very purpose of public education.”
The Fourth Circuit reversed the District Court’s dismissal of the Free Speech claim. The Fourth Circuit, however, upheld the District Court’s dismissal of other constitutional claims.
Here is the Fourth Circuit’s opinion.