The traumatized teacher who was threatened had to take a year's medical leave to recover. Obviously, schools should seek legal counsel before disciplining a student that creates such a private site. Schools that allow student created web sites for clubs and after school activities open themselves to potential problems if they have not put in place the proper policies to allow them to control the speech as they do with other school publications. If the district provides a Guest book where visitors can leave comments, students and others may leave inappropriate material for public viewing. Students who use inappropriate speech in their school e-mail may be offending others and putting the school at risk if such speech is used regularly with no consequences.
Inappropriate speech can be obscene, defamatory, and discriminatory.
Some students use e-mail to harass teachers or other students. Harassment is illegal and should be reported to law enforcement authorities. Students who divulge personal and private information about their classmates on the Internet put them at risk. The privacy breach may result in strangers e-mailing, calling, or writing to the individual. Using the school's computer system for illegal purposes can expose the district to risk of litigation if the school is found to be negligent in its supervision of students.