The Herald, Sharon, Pa.

Local News

February 17, 2010

UPDATE: Backed by insurer, school board OKs keeping Layshock case alive

By Joe Pinchot

HERMITAGE — Hermitage School Board on Tuesday authorized appealing an appellate court's decision in the Justin Layshock case.

Layshock was a Hickory High School student suspended for creating an unflattering profile of his then principal, Eric Trosch, in December 2005 on the MySpace social networking Web site.

Layshock and his parents, Donald and Cheryl, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, sued the school board in federal court and a judge agreed that the district had violated Layshock’s free-speech rights by disciplining him for a profile Layshock created on his grandmother’s computer.

The school board appealed and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Philadelphia, affirmed the decision of the lower court judge in an opinion filed earlier this month.

School board solicitor Roger R. Shaffer said the attorney handling the case for the board, Anthony G. Sanchez, Pittsburgh, does not want to immediately ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case.

Instead, Sanchez wants to ask that all of the judges of the Third Circuit consider the case, a so-called “en banc” panel.

A three-judge panel issued the initial ruling.

If the board is not satisfied by whatever decision the Third Circuit makes, such as refusing an en banc review or affirming the three-judge panel’s decision, the district could ask the Supreme Court to consider the case.

There is no absolute right to appeal to the Supreme Court and the justices choose which cases to consider.

Shaffer added that the appeal will not cost the district anything. The district’s insurance carrier has agreed to pay for the appeal.

Sanchez had said previously that the case is ripe for Supreme Court review because it deals with a school’s authority in the era of instant communication and rapid advances in technology.

On the same day of the Layshock decision, the Third Circuit handed down a ruling in another case that seemed to contradict its decision in the Layshock case, some legal observers said.

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