Further Reinforcement for Monitoring

You can't violate my free speech -- often the lament of the college athlete caught by a coach or administrator with a problem on their SNW. A state ruling from Connecticut provides another support in the argument as a high school student's comments on livejournal.com were used to disqualify him from the student council election.

The high school had a clause that candidates must show "good citizenship." Apparently, calling a school administrator a "douchebag" or encouraging people to "piss off" the school's central office on your blog violates that policy.

Payoff quote from the Hartford Courant:

The court also emphasized that Doninger's discipline barred her from an extracurricular activity, and that the blog post was inconsistent with the school's policy that student government representatives have a record of good citizenship.

The student apparently is prepping an appeal. Good luck, because when the rules for extracurricular activity are set -- whether they are team rules for an athletic team or qualifications for a leadership or academic group -- you violate them at your peril.

The First Amendment does not cover that.

More at the Chron and the Hartford Courant