Doninger v. Niehoff: Taking Tinker Too Far

This Note summarizes Supreme Court cases that have addressed the authority of schools to discipline students for their speech and briefly illustrates the disagreements on when and how the Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District’s “substantial disruption” rule is to be utilized. It also provides an overview of Wisniewski v. Board of Education, a Second Circuit decision that applied Tinker to a student’s online speech, and addresses the problem with the reliance on Tinker in Doninger v. Niehoff, arguing that the Second Circuit should have decided Doninger without applying Tinker at all. Instead, a school’s extracurricular policies, and the disciplining of a student that violates these policies, should be subject to a standard like that found in Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier. This solution allows schools to demand higher standards of conduct for students that participate in extracurricular activities, and gives schools more deference as they uphold those standards.