Example 2: A group of high school students secretly record their teacher in the classroom, and later upload video to YouTube with audio commentary on the teacher’s alleged lack of hygiene and poor organizational skills. The video includes footage of the teacher walking away from the camera and bending over and is accompanied by the rap song “Ms. New Booty.” Several students are suspended for their role in creating and posting the video, one of whom files a lawsuit in federal court challenging his suspension.

Example 3: A teenage boy, angry about a grade he received on a math test, posts a video to YouTube in which he identifies his math teacher and asks viewers to “shoot her in the neck.” The teen is suspended from school, taken into custody, and faces charges of aggravated assault.

Free speech or student misconduct? It’s not always that easy to tell.

When can schools take action and when must they hold back?

In the first example above, not much can be done beyond asking YouTube to pull the video from its site. Even if the teacher is successful in determining who recorded and posted the video, the law offers her little recourse because her only real complaint is that the video is embarrassing or that it somehow invades her privacy. The law governing free speech generally allows the public recording of the teacher and the posting of the video.