Document Type

Article

Publication Date

12-2014

Publication Source

School Business Affairs

Abstract

A recent case from Pennsylvania, Munroe v. Central Bucks School District (2014), raises fresh questions about the free speech and expression rights of public school teachers as they use the Internet. In Munroe, when a board terminated a high school teacher’s employment for making controversial postings about her students and colleagues on her personal blog—postings that proved disruptive—a federal trial court rejected the educator’s claim that she was dismissed in retaliation for exercising her right to free speech.

Before reviewing the facts and judicial opinion in Munroe, it is worth noting that blogs (a term coined in the late 1990s by joining the words “Web” and “log”) are collections of online postings created by individuals that are read and sometimes commented on by others. The growth of that phenomenon is nothing short of amazing; the popular blog site Tumblr (2014) reports that as of early September 2014, some 201.9 million blogs were on the Internet, totaling 90.5 billion posts.

Inclusive pages

36-38

ISBN/ISSN

0036-651X

Document Version

Published Version

Comments

This document has been made available for download by permission of the publisher.

This article originally appeared in the December 2014 School Business Affairs magazine and is reprinted with permission of the Association of School Business Officials International (ASBO). The text herein does not necessarily represent the views or policies of ASBO International, and use of this imprint does not imply any endorsement or recognition by ASBO International and its officers or affiliates. Any additional re-purposing or reprint of this article in this or any other medium is restricted without prior written consent.

Permission documentation is on file.

Publisher

Association of School Business Officials

Volume

80

Issue

11

Place of Publication

Reston, VA


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