Home > Public Resources > Law in Society Scholarship Hypothetical - 2010
Smith Valley High School junior Sharon Little was excited: For two years she had been a star player on the junior varsity girls soccer team, and she couldn't wait for the varsity team tryouts.
On the first day, however, she heard some disturbing news. Coach Newsome, the girls’ coach and a well-respected English teacher at Smith Valley for ten years, had a new requirement for the team: If any members had Facebook accounts, they had to make her a "friend" who could read their postings. "If you want to be a part of this team," she announced, "then you need to uphold Smith Valley's good reputation — not just by the way you act at school, but also by what you say in public outside of school hours. Think of me as a special friend who helps you think twice before saying vulgar, hurtful or inappropriate things." She added, “When you post comments on Facebook, you may not realize how big an audience you are speaking to. Making negative comments about our team or our school could do a lot of damage to the school’s reputation. It’s not the same as passing a note to a friend.”
Sharon and her friends did not like the coach's new requirement one bit. "It's an invasion of privacy!" exclaimed her friend Patty. "How can she monitor what we say when we are at home? That's like having her listen in on a personal phone call!" But the players didn't think they could say no, and they were pretty sure the principal would back up the coach. Sharon really wanted to play soccer, so when she was selected for the team she made the coach a "friend” on Facebook, as did the other players.
A month passed. The team was winning, and Sharon was having a great time. But then the assistant principal, Mr. Tavistock, announced that a water line that ran alongside one of the soccer fields needed to be replaced. The field would be torn up and unusable for the rest of the season. The school administration had decided to move the girls’ practices to a rarely used field at the back of the school grounds, while letting the boys varsity team continue to practice on a well-maintained field by the school parking lot. The girls team's games were all moved to early on Saturday mornings, while the boys team's games would remain on Friday evenings. "That way, both teams can continue to play games on the nice field," explained Mr. Tavistock, "and it makes more sense for the boys team to play Friday evenings because they draw so many more spectators."
Sharon was furious. She came home that day and fumed to her mother, "I can't believe it! You'd think that they would at least let the two teams alternate our practices and games on the nice field! But instead, they make us hike all the way to the back of the school grounds, and play on that rocky old dirt pile! I think that's discrimination!" She immediately jumped on her school-issued laptop, logged onto her Facebook account and posted that opinion, adding, "The school administration is a bunch of @#$%* jerks and sexists — especially Mr. Tavistock!"
At the next practice, Coach Newsome called Sharon over. "I read what you posted on Facebook last night,” the coach said. “The school administration is doing the best that they can to work around a tough situation. And I warned you that I expected you to uphold this school's good reputation at all times. You've shown that you cannot be a good team player and supportive member of our school community, and you used very vulgar language to describe an administrator who deserves your respect. So you are no longer welcome to play on this team."
Questions to consider:
NOTE: Reference to real persons, places, or events are made in a fictional context, and are not intended to be libelous, defamatory, or in any way factual.
Updated: November 17, 2009