[Tommy]

A recent incident in my extended family started me thinking about the role of public schools in policing their students use of social media like Facebook. In the incident, one student was accused of writing something inapproriate on another student's Facebook page over the weekend. On Monday, the offended student complained to a teacher who verbally chastised the alleged offender. When I learned of it, my first reaction was to wonder why anyone at the school got involved at all. Since then, I've read of schools taking disciplinary action against students who wrote comments critical of teachers on their own Facebook pages. My questions for this learned and widely opinionated group are: When may school officials legally involve themselves in communications done outside the school setting, and when should they involve themselves?