The Future of Student Internet Speech: What Are We Teaching the Facebook Generation?

THE FUTURE OF STUDENT INTERNET SPEECH:

WHAT ARE WE TEACHING THE FACEBOOK GENERATION?

A CONFERENCE

PRESENTED BY THE
YALE LAW SCHOOL
LAW AND MEDIA PROGRAM
FEBRUARY 13-14, 2009
NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT

We are encouraged by your interest in the problems to be addressed at this Conference. 

To help each participant know more before we gather to work about one another, we invited each to submit a brief biography that reflects their interest or experience.  They will be posted as received.

To help us with a clearer understanding of one another’s outlooks and help to set the scene for our work, we have invited everyone who will attend an opportunity to respond to each of five questions -- their answers to be shared on these pages:

1.   What kinds of student internet communications present the most significant in school difficulties:  cyberbullying, defamation of teachers of other students, voluntary or involuntary breaches of personal privacy, or something else? What long-term steps to ameliorate these difficulties do you prefer?

2.    How much freedom should public school students have when away from school to gather and disseminate news, information and opinion on the Internet,  whether in the form of text messages, instant messages, e-mail, blogs or other forms of communication?

3.    How much freedom should student journalists enjoy, whether their work appears in print, online or on-air to report news, provide commentary, criticism or opinion?  

4.    Do administrators and teachers have enough information and training to provide academic instruction about freedom of speech expression, prevent situations  affecting speech from becoming overheated and demonstrate by example the First Amendment values and sensitivities that young people should learn and carry  with them?  

The concept for this Conference developed after our attention was drawn to a succession of court decisions that appear to erode the ability of young people to write and speak freely to larger audiences, in and out of school.  A closer examination has led us to conclude that while the Internet does and will provide young people with many of the same abilities to communicate that until recently were enjoyed by a relatively small community of journalists and artists, most young denizens of cyberspace are unaware that this freedom comes with responsibilities that, if ignored, can place their own liberties at risk. 

We believe that if an educational initiative that resonates with young people is not undertaken to reduce cyberbullying, discourage defamation, value personal privacy and intellectual property rights, we will be hard pressed to head off legislative and judicial actions that are repugnant to the First Amendment.    

Our hope is that those attending this Conference can find common interests on and join with us in an alliance to prepare, distribute and sustain a shared educational initiative that uses new and traditional media to reach young people in places and ways that will interest and inspire them.   

We have also invited conference participants to submit materials or links that they think may be of interest to fellow attendees. The Law and Media Program will add to these items and post them under the You May Want to Read section of this site.

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Program

Registration – 1:00 – 2:00 P.M.

2:00 P.M.
I. Welcome and Introduction  – Stephen Nevas, Executive Director,  Law & Media Program

II. Two Related Problems – Different Points of View

A. A High School Newspaper Editor’s Dilemma
1. Yale Law School Student Nabiha Syed
2.  Counterpoint:  Mel Riddile
 National Association of Secondary School Principals 

B. Student Speech on Internet – How Far Should School Authority Extend?
The Doninger v. Niehoff Case
1. Jon Schoenhorn, Esq.
Attorney for Plaintiff Avery Doninger
2. Thomas Gerarde, Esq.
Attorney for Defendant Burlington, CT Public Schools

III. First Principles -  The Dimensions of the Playing Field  - Robert Post, David Boies Professor, First Amendment Law, Yale Law School

[Break]

IV. Roundtable Discussion

A.   What Problems Do We Share?  How Big Are They?
1. Cyberbullying?
2. Defamation?
3. Voluntary or Involuntary Loss of Privacy?
4.   Others?

B.    Is Litigation the Answer?

C. Do We Have A Common Constitutional Heritage?

D. Is the Internet a First Amendment Protected Medium?

- What Is the Web Doing to the Journalistic Model?

[Break]

E. Can Self-Restraint Be a Two-Way Street? 

F. Are There Better Ways to Prepare All Involved?

G.   Our Common Ground
1. Administrators
2. Teachers
3. Students


6:00 P.M. 
VI.     Cocktail Reception Dinner and
An After Dinner Conversation:

Professor Mary-Rose Papandrea, Boston College Law School   Can We Teach Shared Values?
     
Comments and Questions.



Continental Breakfast, 7:45 – 8:30 A.M.
  
8:30 A. M.
I. Building on Our Common Ground 
Stephen Nevas

Breakout Groups Begin a Search for Solutions 

i. Curricula?
ii. Media?
iii. Distribution?
iv. Sustaining the Effort – Incentives?

II. Breakout Groups Report Back

II. Organization of Working Group
- Responsibilities, Time Lines, Next Meeting?


12: 15 - 2:15 P.M.  
III. Lunch

Acting Before Events Get Out of Hand:  Is There Another Way?
Jennifer Brown, Senior Research Scholar, Yale Law School 
Professor & Director, Center on Dispute Resolution Quinnipiac Law School 
“How & When Alternative Dispute Resolution Might Work”
Q & A/Comments
     
IV. Adjourn