Don't School Administrators Have Anything More Important To Do Than To Police Snapchat Conversations?

I have a long record on this blog of stating categorically that schools have no business policing the out-of-school behaviors of their students.  Many schools do, though, claiming that the heart-boo-boo caused by someone off campus "impacts the learning environment", or some such nonsense.

And now a group of students is striking back:

The parents of four Saline, Michigan, high school students filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday over the students' suspension following alleged racist messages they posted on Snapchat.

Two of the unnamed students, all white, have returned to their classes while the others face expulsion for their Jan. 26 Snapchat texts where they reportedly used the N word and white supremacy statements, according to the students' attorney, David A. Kallman. Kallman contends their punishments violated their first amendment rights.

Although the suit acknowledged that the students’ Snapchat thread was inappropriate and immature, it argued that the school had no jurisdiction to discipline them since the texting took place outside of school grounds and the students were denied their due process rights...

Representatives for the Saline Area Schools didn’t immediately return messages asking for comment. Saline Area Schools Superintendent Scot Graden released a letter on Jan. 27 that the school investigated the texts after they were reported to administrators and determined "that the incident represents an act of racism that created harm to all of our students."

Stay tuned.