A high school student in Philadelphia made series of videos, posted on TikTok, showing how exposed how some of his classmates could not read well nor comprehend relatively simple sentences. “whatthevek” posted a video showing single high school-aged students was unable to read the sentence, “She wore a silhouette of clothes that were extraordinary but somewhat gauche.” He made a follow-up video a day later in showing students unable to make sense of the sentence, “The colonel asked the choir to accommodate the governor’s schedule.” The videos were filmed at the city’s Preparatory Charter School of Mathematics, Science, Technology and Careers.
How surprised are you? I’m not.
The two videos went “viral,” accumulating 1.7 million likes and thousands of comments. The student says he won’t be posting a third, however. “I would post a part three, but the school board is trying to expel me, stop me from going to prom, and stop me from walking at graduation,” he revealed on Instagram last week.
South Philly-based Prep Charter has yet to conform or deny this. State test scores show that just 53% of students at the school tested proficient in reading, and 19% were proficient in math. Roughly 71% of Philadelphia’s fourth-graders cannot read at grade level, according to statistics from Philadelphia-based social justice group Achieve Now. The group also holds that about half of all adults in Philadelphia are functionally illiterate, one of the highest rates among large US cities.
Let us assume that the student, whose name is not yet known, is indeed facing punishment for his videos.
Ethics Alarms 
I have a couple of questions:
1. Isn’t what this student did investigative journalism followed by intentionally publishing the findings for public consumption thus giving the student all the protections granted to the news media under the first amendment?
2. Could laws protecting whistleblowers be used to protect this individual?
3. Wouldn’t the student have a first amendment case against the school and the school board if the student is punished in any way by the school?
My Opinion
I think the school district should deal with this in the exact same manner as they would if it was published by a professional journalist in the local newspaper or on the local news. As for using the possibility of school disruption to punish a student when that school disruption has not actually taken place, which would be similar to the plot of the movie “Minority Report” and would be treading on very thin morality and legal ice. Schools have to deal with behavioral disruptions from individuals regularly, and this is likely the only kind of “disruption” that I can foresee other than the public knowing how bad the schools are.
“…risked seriously disrupting education at a school.” You can’t disrupt something that isn’t happening.
That’s a really interesting way of putting it!!
Nice argument.
But “education happening” these days means the students show up in attendance. Similarly, showing up at work means they are working and should be paid for being present. It all seems related. Can’t define education, work or what a woman is.
“the posts risked seriously disrupting education at a school.”
You can’t disrupt something if it is not taking place in the first place.
That being said, exposing one’s peers to ridicule is, as they say, a “dick move.” While I do not think the school should punish him for exposing the school’s failure to achieve its goals, the students in the video would have a legitimate (and possibly legal) beef with him.
-Jut
JutGory wrote, “the students in the video would have a legitimate (and possibly legal) beef with him.”
As for the legal part; only if it falls within defamation laws, as in, was it publishing something that he knew was a false aka a lie.
Furthermore…
Jack wrote, “In Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L. (2021), the Supreme Court held that student speech outside of school on social media could be legally punished if, though the principles articulated in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District and Bethel School District v. Fraser, the posts risked seriously disrupting education at a school.”
The Supreme Court might want to review the based on the lack of “imminent lawless action” discussed in Brandenburg v. Ohio.
When did school systems get the ultimate authority to ignore and override a students individual 1st Amendment rights of and punish them for the possibility of disrupting education, literally a disruption that hasn’t yet taken place.
This is absurd.