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Page Number: 9.0

6 

MAHANOY AREA SCHOOL DIST. v. B. L. 

Opinion of the Court 

regulation.  These include serious or severe bullying or har-
assment targeting particular individuals; threats aimed at
teachers or other students; the failure to follow rules con-
cerning lessons, the writing of papers, the use of computers,
or  participation  in  other  online  school  activities;  and
breaches  of  school  security  devices,  including  material 
maintained within school computers.

Even  B. L.  herself  and  the  amici  supporting  her  would 
redefine the Third Circuit’s off-campus/on-campus distinc-
tion,  treating  as  on  campus:  all  times  when  the  school  is 
responsible  for  the  student;  the  school’s  immediate  sur-
roundings; travel en route to and from the school; all speech 
taking  place  over  school  laptops  or  on  a  school’s  website; 
speech  taking  place  during  remote  learning;  activities 
taken  for  school  credit;  and  communications  to  school  e-
mail accounts or phones.  Brief for Respondents 36–37.  And 
it may be that speech related to extracurricular activities, 
such as team sports, would also receive special treatment
under B. L.’s proposed rule.  See Tr. of Oral Arg. 71, 85.

We are uncertain as to the length or content of any such
list of appropriate exceptions or carveouts to the Third Cir-
cuit  majority’s  rule.    That  rule,  basically,  if  not  entirely, 
would deny the off-campus applicability of Tinker’s highly
general statement about the nature of a school’s special in-
terests.  Particularly  given  the  advent  of  computer-based 
learning, we hesitate to determine precisely which of many 
school-related  off-campus  activities  belong  on  such  a  list.
Neither  do  we  now  know  how  such  a  list  might  vary,  de-
pending upon a student’s age, the nature of the school’s off-
campus activity, or the impact upon the school itself.  Thus, 
we  do  not  now  set  forth  a  broad,  highly  general  First 
Amendment rule stating just what counts as “off campus” 
speech  and  whether  or  how  ordinary  First  Amendment 
standards  must  give  way  off  campus  to  a  school’s  special 
need to prevent, e.g., substantial disruption of learning-re-
lated  activities  or  the  protection  of  those  who  make  up  a