David K. Shipler Quote
Publications aren’t the only forms of expression now governed by Hazelwood’s ruling that speech can be limited when administrators claim ownership of the statement and think it’s unsuitable. Courts have applied the standard to plays, homework assignments, team mascots, and even cheer-leading.62 A cheerleader in Texas was kicked off the squad after she refused to cheer for a basketball player whom she had accused of sexually assaulting her at a party. (He and another boy had been arrested, but a grand jury had refused to indict them.) Her suit was thrown out by a federal district judge and a three-judge panel on the Fifth Circuit, which cited Hazelwood among other factors, noting, In her capacity as cheerleader, [she] served as a mouthpiece through which [the school] could disseminate speech. The school, the judges ruled, had no duty to promote [her] message by allowing her to cheer or not cheer, as she saw fit.63
Publications aren’t the only forms of expression now governed by Hazelwood’s ruling that speech can be limited when administrators claim ownership of the statement and think it’s unsuitable. Courts have applied the standard to plays, homework assignments, team mascots, and even cheer-leading.62 A cheerleader in Texas was kicked off the squad after she refused to cheer for a basketball player whom she had accused of sexually assaulting her at a party. (He and another boy had been arrested, but a grand jury had refused to indict them.) Her suit was thrown out by a federal district judge and a three-judge panel on the Fifth Circuit, which cited Hazelwood among other factors, noting, In her capacity as cheerleader, [she] served as a mouthpiece through which [the school] could disseminate speech. The school, the judges ruled, had no duty to promote [her] message by allowing her to cheer or not cheer, as she saw fit.63
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