NEW YORK, April 26 (UPI) -- A federal appeals court has ruled a student had no free speech right to call her Connecticut high school administrators "douchebags" in a blog post.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York threw out Avery Doninger's claim her right to free speech was violated when her Internet insult got her tossed from a class election in 2007, the New York Daily News reported Tuesday.
The principal and superintendent of Lewis S. Mills High School in Burlington, Conn., were justified in disciplining Doninger because her online behavior was "unbecoming of a class officer," and because she signed the student handbook agreeing to a proper code of conduct, the court ruled.
"To be clear, we do not conclude in any way that school administrators are immune from First Amendment scrutiny when they react to student speech by limiting students' participation in extracurricular activities," Judge Debra Ann Livingston wrote in a 37-page decision.
However, the three-judge panel ruled Doninger's insulting blog post was "potentially disruptive to student government functions."
The decision upheld a 2009 lower court ruling dismissing Doninger's case.
