An upcoming United States Supreme Court decision arguably has the possibility of invalidating sections of the Dignity for All Students Act’s cyberbullying preventions. These are meant to target and prevent off-campus bullying and harassment, including instances that involve verbal or non-verbal actions.

In 2017, after being relegated to the JV cheerleading team for a second consecutive year, Brandi Levy, a rising high school sophomore, had sent two Snapchats to 250 of her friends displaying her dismay toward her coach’s decision. In her first photo, she and a friend were seen raising their middle fingers and wrote, “fuck school fuck softball fuck cheer fuck everything.” Afterward, she followed up with “Love how me and [another student] get told we need a year of JV before we make varsity but that doesn’t matter to anyone else?” She was subsequently suspended from the team for sending these.

These messages were sent on a weekend and occurred off of her school’s campus, yet Levy was nevertheless removed from the cheerleading team for her behavior per the Mahanoy Area High School’s Cheerleading Rules which state that ‘“[t]here will be no toleration of any negative information regarding cheerleading, cheerleaders, or coaches placed on the internet.”’ After appealing her removal to the athletic director, school principal, district superintendent and school board, Levy’s punishment was upheld and consequently, she sued the Mahanoy Area School District.

This article is far from the first of debut Rebecca Williamson, a senior English and communication double major, in The Lamron—getting an early start on her career, Williamson's writing has been published in the paper since 2017. This being said, there has been little coverage of Williamson herself.