Conclusion

Not only has the U.S. Supreme Court clamped down on student rights, but students live in a time when there are numerous efforts to protect them from supposedly harmful speech, such as rap and rock music, violent video games and cyberporn.²⁰⁸

The difficult times public school students face are exacerbated by fear of the Internet and the post-Columbine consciousness of many public school administrators.²⁰⁹ These factors combine to allow the censorship of public school students who offer critical, offensive commentary on their own computers on their own websites.

The Internet offers an outlet for students who feel alienated at school.²¹⁰ The Internet may even afford officials an opportunity to examine the potential dangerousness of certain disturbed students.²¹¹ The unparalleled educational opportunities of the Internet are often subsumed by talk about the gloom and doom of cyberspace.

The First Amendment exists to allow people to offer dissenting opinions. Students are citizens who should also enjoy the protections of the Bill of Rights, particularly when they are in the privacy of their own homes. We must be eternally vigilant to ensure that our fear of new technology and paranoia over school safety does not lead to a shedding of students' constitutional rights not only at the schoolhouse gate, but at their own computer.