LTHS Targets Harassing Social Media Posts

LA GRANGE, IL – Lyons Township High School officials say they have the tools to handle students who are harassing and bullying others.

But they are considering a policy that specifically targets social media posts that they see as hurting classmates.

The proposed policy would allow the school to remove students from extracurricular activities if their posts are perceived as crossing a line.

"There are obviously First Amendment rights attached to students' use of social media," the school's lawyer, Dana Fattore Crumley, said at Monday's school board meeting. "There are limitations on discipline if it implicates that First Amendment right. But there are other instances where the conduct is clearly harassing, it's bullying, it's damaging."

The best way to address that gray area, she said, was to pull students from extracurricular activities. More than 75 percent of the school's students take part in such programs.

By removing students from extracurriculars, Crumley said, "you are not looking at the deprivation of educational rights."

Superintendent Brian Waterman recommended the policy.

"It makes it more explicit around harassment and bullying, whereas before it was more related to school consequences," he said. "This adds more flexibility and teeth to the policy."

Crumley said the school may be unable to discipline a student for criticizing its administration because students enjoy free speech rights.

But she said the school may be able to take action if a student criticized the administration in a crude way.

"I think you would want students in extracurriculars to know that is not appropriate. That's now what we're trying to teach people," Crumley said. "That's not how they should communicate with their bosses at work or if they want to have a productive adult life."

The board is expected to vote on the policy in September.

Last year, the school board removed a resident from a meeting for calling board members "bobbleheads." He has since been ordered to stay away from the school's two campuses.

The school said the man violated the policy against name-calling.