In 2017, a high school girl by the name of Brandi Levy, from the Mahanoy area School District in Pennsylvania, made a Snapchat story that went further than she could have expected. The Snapchat story was meant for only the people on her close friends list to see, but instead it was seen by more than the planned 200 plus people, including adults and the high school’s cheerleading coach. 

So you may be wondering: what could be so wrong with a Snapchat story to your friends? Well, the picture that was posted by Brandi Levy on her story was a picture of her and her friend holding up their middle fingers and cursing out the school. She said that she hated school and everything else, a sentiment probably familiar to anyone who has struggled through adolescence. At the time, Brandi Levy was a cheerleader on the junior varsity team and had tried out for the varsity team but was told that she needed to stay on the junior varsity team for another year. This did not make her happy. Furthermore, she was even more upset because her spot on the varsity team was taken by a freshman that had just joined that year. She also had tried out to get on the softball team as well but, again, didn’t make it. 

Levy was using her private Snapchat story as a place to vent to her friends about not making the team. She had no intentions of targeting anyone and the thought of getting in trouble did not cross her mind. But because some of her friends shared the story to other people and to their parents, the news somehow floated back to the school and to the coach of the cheerleading team. This led to her being suspended from the team. She challenged the suspension in court as a violation of her free speech. 

Now Brandi Levy is a college student, but her case has reached the Supreme Court. Before it went that far it went to several other lower courts, but they passed it on and now it is being taken up by the largest court system in the United States. 

The Supreme Court is the “last court of appeal,” meaning its decision in this case is final. The Supreme Court does not usually take up student cases because they may not be as high up on their list as some other ones, but there are significant Constitutional issues when it comes to this case. 

The Supreme Court took up a similar student free speech case in 1969: Tinker vs. Des Moines. The plaintiffs, or students suing the school, were a group of five who protested the Vietnam War by wearing black armbands to their school. When the students refused to take off their armbands, they were suspended. The case went to the Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of the students and said students retain their right to free speech on school campus unless they are “substantially interfer[ing] . . in the operation of the school” or “colliding with the rights of others.”  But for Brandi Levy, there are some similarities to her case and Tinker. For hers, there is now concern that she may not be backed by the Constitution and the Free Speech clause of the first amendment, which says “Congress shall make no law . . .abridging the freedom of speech.” There is also the concern of how she used inappropriate language against the school, which could potentially count as a substantial disruption. But one of the challenging layers to this is that people talk badly about schools and other places all the time without penalty, so it seems like there should be no reason for this to be that much of an issue. She was not on school grounds when she made the story so there is that struggle with figuring out how the first amendment comes in. There are many layers that have to be figured out when it comes to things that are this big and in-depth. 

Another challenging part to this case is that Levy was not at any school events or doing anything that would involve the school except for being mad at the decision the coach had made. She made the Snapchat story on her private story, and on the weekend. She was hoping that it would not be brought to school on Monday, but that is exactly what happened. 

The big question is if Levy’s free speech was protected because she was not on school grounds and therefore outside the school’s jurisdiction.

Regardless of this, Brandi Levy had no intention of hurting anyone’s feelings and she had no intention for this Snapchat story incident to go as far as it has.