Student suspended for off-campus MySpace page mocking classmate
Kara Kowalski, a senior at Musselman High School in Berkeley County, West Virginia, was suspended for five days in 2005 after creating a MySpace group from her home computer ridiculing a classmate. The Fourth Circuit upheld the discipline in 2011, finding the speech created a foreseeable substantial disruption.
In December 2005, Musselman High School senior Kara Kowalski created a MySpace group titled 'S.A.S.H.' ('Students Against Sluts Herpes') from her home computer, targeting a classmate. About two dozen students joined and posted derogatory messages. After the targeted student's family complained, the school suspended Kowalski for five days and imposed a 90-day social suspension barring her from cheerleading and other activities. In Kowalski v. Berkeley County Schools, 652 F.3d 565 (4th Cir. 2011), the Fourth Circuit affirmed summary judgment for the district, holding the speech bore a sufficient nexus to the school to justify discipline under Tinker.