| American's right to free speech might sometimes be taken for granted. However, the founding fathers could not have foreseen the complexity of our current technology, nor imagined its impact on communication, especially the Internet. In the world of education, school employees have the ability to share their opinions of their administrators, co-workers, students, parents, and community with the entire world via the Internet. Sometimes, these opinions could become libelous, demeaning, or disruptive to the work environment.;There are dual purposes to this project: (1) to determine the potential impact of Garcetti v. Ceballos, 547 U.S. 410 (2006) on teacher's First Amendment rights as they pertain to blogging and other social networks; and (2) conduct a policy analysis examining the existence of Internet blogging/social networking policies in districts across the nation culminating in a recommended policy addressing these issues.;In order to completely understand the impact of Garcetti v. Ceballos on employee First Amendment rights, a literature review of education-related case law is conducted, beginning with Pickering v. Board of Education , 391 U.S. 563 (1968) and ending with Garcetti. Significant case law is reviewed and analyzed with an emphasis toward the application of the recent U.S. Supreme Court case, Garcetti v. Ceballos, Id.;The project then researches and reviews any current policies in place across the nation as they address teachers' Internet/social networking use. The research uncovered very few existing policies. Each existing policy is then analyzed using the following criteria: (1) Consistency with other district policies; (2) Compliance with other district policies such as anti-discrimination and anti-harassment policies; (3) Prohibition of discriminatory or libelous comments; (4) Requirement of professional and ethical behavior; (5) Adherence to the district's Acceptable Use Policy; (6) Reservation of right to take disciplinary action.;Upon reviewing the few existing policies, the goal of the project is to draft a recommended district-level policy to address this issue in the face of the ever-expanding use of technological media. |
