North East Independent School District - Shanley V. North East ISD

Shanley V. North East ISD

North East ISD was the defendant in Shanley v. NEISD, a Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling which declared that North East ISD had an overly broad policy and the district's suspension of five students had interfered with their rights to free speech under the United States Constitution. North East had suspended five high school students for publishing an unapproved newsletter and distributing it to students near campus before and after school hours. The NEISD school board declared the content, which included information about birth control and advocated for the review of marijuana laws, to be inappropriate and controversial. The Court found that public schools can limit the expression of its students when it materially and substantially interferes with school activities, or with the rights of teachers and other students, but not at non-school-sponsored events, and the district has cannot exceed its authority to forbid or punish on-campus activity when punishing off-campus activity.

It should come as a shock to the parents of five high school seniors that their elected school board had assumed over their children before and after school, off school grounds, and with regard to their children’s rights expressing their thoughts ... We trust that it will come as no shock to the school board that their assumption of authority is an unconstitutional usurption of the First Amendment.