A Sterling High School student settled her lawsuit against the school district after
she claimed the administration punished her
for tweeting profane comments about her principal,
according to the New Jersey Law Journal
.
The Journal reports that the district agreed in April to reimburse the student $9,000 in legal fees and to clarify its policy on social media monitoring as part of the settlement with the student, H.W. In addition, the district reversed its punishments against her -- which included banning her from her senior class trip -- and expunged her record.
The settlement was approved by the district in April but made public earlier this month. The student claimed in the federal suit that her First Amendment rights were violated when the district allegedly checked her Twitter account and then disciplined her for "purely off-campus speech" in which she called her principal a name in a tweet to her friends.
The Laurel Springs student alleged the district punished her for that specific comment — and not for another tweet about smoking before school, which she said the district would likely allege was the reason for punishment, according to the original claim. Six days after the tweet — which she said she sent at home after school — H.W. was banned from attending her senior prom, senior class trip and from walking during graduation, according to court documents.
She also alleged that the district discriminated against her because of her disabilities, including Oppositional Defiant Disorder and bi-polar disorder — disabilities that caused her to say the things that she did, according to the lawsuit. ODD is characterized by "oppositional behavior and difficulty with authority," the lawsuit explains.
As part of the settlement, according to the Journal, the district will modify its student handbook to include that administrators "may be monitoring student discussions on Facebook, Twitter or other social media outlets and may seek to impose penalties in accordance with the student code of conduct if such discussions cause a substantial disruption at the school.”
The student was also allowed to attend prom and graduation, as long as she didn't reach out to the press or discuss the settlement, the Journal reported.