Facts

Plaintiff Mariella Rudi Lopez was a 7th-grade student at defendant Page Private School's Hancock Park campus, who was asked to leave the school following the school's discovery of postings that she and other students made on MySpace.com that, in the school's view, were lewd, libelous and defamatory of two of the school's teachers.

None of the postings were created during school hours, using the school's computers, or in connection with any school-sponsored activity. The postings were made after school hours from plaintiff's home computer. The school advised plaintiff and her mother that these postings warranted expulsion, but that if her mother withdrew plaintiff from school, the expulsion would not be reflected on the plaintiff's academic transcript.

Plaintiff's mother withdrew her from defendant's school, and thereafter plaintiff sued the school for a declaration that by disciplining her for her MySpace comments, the school violated her constitutional rights pursuant to California Education Code Section 48950.

PLAINTIFF'S CONTENTIONS:
The plaintiff claimed that Page Private School violated Education Code Section 48950 which prohibits, inter alia, private secondary schools from disciplining a pupil solely on the basis of conduct that is speech or communication that, when engaged in outside of campus, is protected from governmental restriction by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution or Section 2 of Article I of the California Constitution.

The comments over which plaintiff was disciplined were clearly facetious and parodied her teachers. No one in the intended audience, other students, would have reasonably understood them to be stating any actual facts about the teachers.

DEFENDANT'S CONTENTIONS:
The defendant contended that the claims were moot, that plaintiff lacked standing, and that defendant did not violate Education Code Section 48950 because the lewd, obscene, defamatory, and libelous comments are not protected speech by either the United States or California Constitutions.

Result

Defense. The plaintiff's causes of action for violation of Education Code Section 48950 and declaratory relief was dismissed with prejudice because both causes of action were moot. The plaintiff's request for reinstatement as a student at Page Private School not viable considering Page Private School only offers education through the 8th grade and plaintiff had already completed same.