• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, February 5, 2009

A Connecticut lawmaker intends to introduce a bill to protect students' right to free speech online, Fox News reports.

A preliminary version of the bill would prohibit school officials from "punishing students for the content of electronic correspondence transmitted outside of school facilities... provided such content is not a threat to students, personnel or the school."

The measure, proposed by former teacher and state senator Gary LeBeau, was sparked by a public school's decision to ban student Avery Doninger from running for school office because she called school administrators "douche bags" in her blog.

Doninger sued the school for violating her First Amendment rights. Some of Doninger's claims were dismissed on the ground that school officials are immune from civil rights lawsuits in cases where they didn't clearly violate the constitution, the Citizen Media Law Project reports. "If courts and legal scholars cannot discern the contours of First Amendment protections for student internet speech, then it is certainly unreasonable to expect school administrators, such as defendants, to predict where the line between on- and off-campus speech will be drawn in this new digital era," the court ruled.

Doninger's family members have said they intend to continue pursuing the case in the court system -- as well they should. Students, like other citizens, have the right to criticize authority figures. That means that the government -- including public school systems -- shouldn't take action against students for their written opinions.

What's most remarkable about LeBeau's bill, at least in its preliminary form, is that it applies specifically to the Internet. Why not non-digital speech? It's not that LeBeau doesn't think non-Web speech should be protected. Rather, he seems to assume -- as do many others -- that non-digital remarks already are protected, that students who criticize teachers in letters written on paper have the right to do so.

Certainly students' right to voice dissent -- in digital form or otherwise -- should be protected. LeBeau's bill is a step in the right direction.