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Oct 01, 2023

Student Who Mimicked Teacher on Instagram Gets Suspension Upheld

A high school student’s ten-day suspension for impersonating his science teacher

A high school student's ten-day suspension for impersonating his science teacher on Instagram was upheld by a federal appeals court.

The Instagram account started off during a weekend with a biography of a teacher, but after the minor—whose name was not identified in court documents—gave his two friends the password, the posts entered graphic, violent, and discriminatory territory overnight, according to the opinion. The student deleted the account during the next school day, but not before it came to the school's attention and eventually resulted in a ten day suspension.

The student's father, Jason Kutchinski, sued in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan saying that the suspension violated his son's First and Fourteenth Amendment rights. He appealed when the school won summary judgment.

By creating the Instagram account and initially joking with his friends, the student was responsible for the speech that came out of the false page and the school could punish him for the disruption it caused, Judge Andre B. Mathis of the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit said in affirmation of the lower court.

The court said it agreed with the First, Fourth, and Ninth Circuits that a student bears responsibility for harmful speech when they cause, contribute, or affirmatively participate in it.

While a school doesn't need an actual disruption to invoke discipline, Freeland High School in Freeland, Mich. was roiled by the fake Instagram page, Mathis said in the opinion. Another teacher who the page targeted with sexually demeaning language was seen "crying in one of her classes," he said.

Schools need "a high degree of deference in the exercise of their professional judgment" to respond to potential disruptions to a learning environment, so "schools are not held to the utmost specificity in drafting their disciplinary rules," the Sixth Circuit said.

"Gross misconduct" that could lead to a suspension or expulsion may be somewhat vague, but it's not unconstitutionally so, the court found.

Judges Ronald Lee Gilman and Chad A. Readler joined in the opinion.

Outside Legal Counsel PLC and Gronda PLC represented Kutchinski. O’Neill, Wallace & Doyle PC represented the school.

The case is Kutchinski v. Freeland Cmty. School Dist., 6th Cir., No. 22-01748, 6/2/23.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ufonobong Umanah in Washington at [email protected]

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Martina Stewart at [email protected]; Drew Singer at [email protected]

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