A free speech and student rap case is at the Supreme Court
Can a public school high school student be suspended for critically rapping about teachers outside of school? A case heading toward a Supreme Court private conference early nextyear could draw a new First Amendment boundary
The case of Bell v. Itawamba County School Board has been in the court system since 2011, when aspiring student rapper Taylor Bell appealed his punishment for rap lyrics that school officials believed were threatening to the teachers.
Several high-profile rappers have jumped into the case involving the former Mississippi high school student. On Sunday, the New York Times’ Supreme Court correspondent Adam Liptak profiled the case and gave readers an advance look at a brief filed by rappers such as Killer Mike and T.I. with the Supreme Court.
Killer Mike, said Liptak, argues the First Amendment permits expression, no matter how uncomfortable some people are with language used in rap music. “I see a kid who saw wrong happening and was outraged about it,” the rapper said. “He wrote a poem about it over a beat.”
But in a broader legal sense, observers have been watching the case and its appeals process for some time, because a core issue is about where is boundary the limits student free speech – inside the school or outside of school in the world of Facebook and YouTube.
In his brief to the Supreme Court, Bell and his attorneys outline how Bell, then a high school senior in 2011 at Itawamba Agricultural High School, received a suspension and was sent to another school. Bell claimed he was told by several female students that they were being sexually harassed by two male teachers who were also sports coaches. The aspiring rapper composed and performed two songs confronting the teachers about the accusations, using rap language that was perceived as vulgar, profane and rhetorically threatening. The songs were posted on Facebook and YouTube, and composed and performed outside of school.
School officials were alerted to Bell’s activities, and they determined there were four instances of “threatening, harassing, and intimidating language against the two coaches” in his performances. The school board upheld the punishment and the legal appeals process started.
The U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals, with three judges hearing arguments, ruled 2-1 against the school district and for Bell in December 2014 on his First Amendment claim, citing the famous 1969 Tinker v. Des Moines decision.
“Contrary to the district court’s conclusion, the Supreme Court in Tinker did not hold that theA free speech and student rap case is at the Supreme Court - Yahoo News:
