Rights in Schools

This case clearly goes well beyond
the exceptions to "search and seizure"
which schools are normally allowed by their very nature.

It's a very nasty and delicate situation. Schools are literally "d---ed if they do and d---ed if they don't" when it comes to policing their charges' behavior. On one side schools have conservative parents adamantly insisting on the schools' uphold certain standards of behavior and speech while on the other side, schools have parents who act as if there should be "no holds barred" so far as their children's behavior is concerned.

One thing I dislike about this article is that it glosses over the differences between children and adults. Children are NOT little adults who only grow taller on their way to adulthood. The differences are real and it's because of those differences that EVERY society dictates its children live under the control of adults and be subject to their rules of behavior.
I, for one, don't believe children should have the same first amendment rights as adults simply because children haven't yet reached the age where they can be relied upon to control themselves in a civilized manner. Afterall the right to an adult's freedom of speech does NOT include the right to shout "FIRE!" in a crowded theater when there is no fire and people might get hurt if they panic while trying to escape the supposed fire nor should a child's right to freedom of speech include the right to torment another child. Perhaps it sounds like a little thing but adults tend to forget how helpless a child really is. An adult who finds him or herself unhappy at their job or in their community can generally find another job or another community at will. Children usually doesn't have that option and so are stuck with whatever situation they find themselves in.
As for the article's statement that: "For more than forty years, the United States courts have recognized that students do not check their First Amendment rights at the schoolhouse door", the article fails to mention that schools have long had legal routes around this.
One such legal route is that school newspapers, yearbooks, and other school publications are always declared to be "school property" simply so that schools can veto anything of a questionable nature THAT THE MORE CONSERVATIVE PARENTS AND MEMBERS OF THE COMMUNITY AT LARGE MIGHT OBJECT TO CHILDREN SEEING.

Ugh...please forgive me this touches off a lot of my memories from my childhood...
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:(

You've brought up an important point: A student's internet history and email archive are NOT located on school grounds and thus you'd think they'd be well beyond the reach or interest of school officials.
Unfortunately I'm beginning to see a bit of a trend toward people trying to hold schools responsible for children's behavior even after hours and well away from school grounds. (Saw an article about two boys who fought each other after hours and well away from school property and they still tried to drg the school into the court case---I'll have to look it up and see how that went.)
Actually I'm not surprised to see this happening. Our schools do have the most ready source of information on our children and the most control over them during the day. I'm just surprised that the legal system has taken this long to try and make use of it.
Schools in other countries have a far greater and harsher grip on their students than American schools do. In Japan, teachers can and do police student behavior, hair and clothing styles in spite of anything parents might say or think of it.
And Japan has nothing on Africa when it comes to strictness. I remember seeing a documentry on an African school where a truant student was made to wear leg irons around his ankles to keep him from running off again!
Asia also has some strict disciplinary policies. You should see some of the video's of Asian teachers reacting to bad classroom behavior.
:(