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4 

MAHANOY AREA SCHOOL DIST. v. B. L. 

Opinion of the Court 

reason—whether  it  stems  from  time,  place,  or  type  of  be-
havior—materially disrupts classwork or involves substan-
tial  disorder  or  invasion  of  the  rights  of  others  is  . . .  not 
immunized  by  the  constitutional  guarantee  of  freedom  of 
speech.”  Id., at 513. 

Many  courts  have  taken  this  statement  as  setting  a
standard—a standard that allows schools considerable free-
dom on campus to discipline students for conduct that the
First Amendment might otherwise protect.  But here, the 
panel  majority  held  that  this  additional  freedom  did  “not 
apply  to  off-campus  speech,”  which  it  defined  as  “speech 
that  is  outside  school-owned,  -operated,  or  -supervised 
channels and that is not reasonably interpreted as bearing 
the school’s imprimatur.”  964 F. 3d, at 189.  Because B. L.’s 
speech took place off campus, the panel concluded that the 
Tinker standard did not apply and the school consequently 
could  not  discipline  B.  L.  for  engaging  in  a  form  of  pure
speech.

A concurring member of the panel agreed with the major-
ity’s  result  but  wrote  that  the  school  had  not  sufficiently 
justified  disciplining  B.  L.  because,  whether  the  Tinker 
standard did or did not apply, B. L.’s speech was not sub-
stantially disruptive. 

C 
The  school  district  filed  a  petition  for  certiorari  in  this 
Court, asking us to decide “[w]hether [Tinker], which holds
that public school officials may regulate speech that would 
materially  and  substantially  disrupt  the  work  and  disci-
pline of the school, applies to student speech that occurs off 
campus.”  Pet. for Cert. I.  We granted the petition. 

II 
We have made clear that students do not “shed their con-
stitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression,” even
“at  the  school  house  gate.”  Tinker,  393  U. S.,  at  506;  see