Multiple California high school students have filed federal lawsuits alleging they were wrongfully suspended and presented to a mob after interacting with offensive Instagram photos posted by another student.

Future rulings in the cases could have a broad impact on American students' ability to communicate freely online while not in school, with the lawsuits seeking a judgment that the First Amendment allowed the students to "like" photos and write comments.

The Instagram images were shared using a private account and reportedly included a black doll next to a white-robed figure and a noose, as well as photos of African-American students next to apes, creating an uproar at Albany High School north of Berkeley.

More than a dozen students were disciplined by school officials in March, most of them given short suspensions for commenting on or “liking” the content. At least two, including the account’s alleged creator, still are awaiting possible expulsion.

Four students filed a federal lawsuit earlier this month, and were joined by two others who filed their own lawsuit Friday, seeking to clear their disciplinary records and have their actions declared constitutionally protected speech.

The new lawsuit says the account’s photos were “disgusting and extremely inappropriate,” but that the two students’ interactions occurred outside of school and caused no direct educational disruption that could be used to justify discipline.

"It was not until defendants, and each of them, publicized and shared photos of the account, albeit redacted in part, with the entire student body that the learning process was disrupted and the depicted were placed in fear," the lawsuit says.

The new lawsuit says three students contributed content to the private Instagram account and that 13 others were invited to follow the private account, which was exposed when an uninvited student saw the content on a classmate’s phone.

“The vast majority of the [13], being minorities themselves, were speechless,” the lawsuit says.

Attorney Joe Salama, who is representing the two students who filed the new lawsuit, says he represents two additional students too fearful to take legal action.

The students behind the new lawsuit are identified only as “Doe” and “Roe,” with the suit stating they have a combined ancestry that is “Thai, Irish, Lithuanian, Chinese, Mexican and Cherokee.”

Salama declined to clarify the individual students’ ancestries, and says they have not returned to school and would like to be offered in-person instruction at a nearby facility.

Three students behind the initial lawsuit have Asian heritage, and the fourth is white. Those students were named in that lawsuit, with their attorneys reasoning that people already knew who they are. Three have not returned to the school.

“The school administrators are trying to right all of the wrongs of society within Albany High School,” says Darryl Yorkey, an attorney representing the initial four. “They essentially provided tar and feathers to everyone who wants to label these students as 'racists' or 'harmers.'"

Alan Beck, another attorney for the four, says, "This isn't exactly the Ku Klux Klan rising up. This is a multiracial group of friends making bad jokes on the internet.”

Beck believes even the original content creator would be protected from punishment by the First Amendment.

The new lawsuit offers additional alleged details surrounding the chaotic aftermath of a March 30 mediation event between students depicted by the account and those who engaged with the posts.

The lawsuit says most of those punished for engaging with the content were confronted by about 20 other students – targets of the posts and their friends – and were "berated, yelled at, called horrible things, and told how much everyone hated them for what they had done (or, rather, what they believed the [13] had done).”

During the mediation, a school leader also allegedly announced that a noose had been found in a tree nearby, heightening tensions. Local media later reported the possible noose was a broken swing.

A nearby rally on school property then morphed into a “mob,” the lawsuit says, with the punished students “formed into a line” and ushered through a jeering crowd for “a walk of shame more appropriate for a novel by George R.R. Martin or Nathaniel Hawthorne than a United States public high school.”

School staff, the suit states, “literally stood there and looked on.”

Most members of the punished group were able to leave the school, though two were allegedly assaulted, one suffering a broken nose. The new lawsuit says “Doe” and “Roe” were “trapped” for more than six hours, with people outside the room able to “jeer at them through the windows like zoo animals.”

“Doe was told by a member of the mob that the noose outside had been made for him,” the lawsuit says.

The new lawsuit says the two students "made three or fewer benign comments" on Instagram, though Salama declined to quote them. The suit requests that the students be allowed to "read their letters of apology" to the student body over the school intercom system.

The initial lawsuit says comments contributed by that group included "yep" and "this account is only targeting black people."

It's unclear, however, if there are more comments that have yet to be reported. Without spelling out the content, the initial lawsuit also references one student being "responsive to comments previously made on two Instagram images, and another making a "sarcastic remark" to one of the images.

"I don't think we even have the entirety of their posts," Yorkey says.

A school district spokeswoman did not respond to a voicemail seeking comment. In an initial statement, Superintendent Val Williams said the school district "takes great care to ensure that our students feel safe at school, and we are committed to providing an inclusive and respectful learning environment for all of our students."

The lawsuits have initially been assigned to separate judges, but the cases may be consolidated, Salama and Yorkey say.

The dispute could have an effect that limits rather than expands speech rights, George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley writes in a blog post, saying that although he doubts school officials can punish out-of-school posts that don't feature criminal threats, "I worry that courts will further erode free speech by blindly yielding to the expanding scope of authority of school officials over private speech of students."

In a landmark 1969 ruling in Tinker v. Des Moines, the Supreme Court found that schools could not prohibit "expression of one particular opinion, at least without evidence that it is necessary to avoid material and substantial interference with schoolwork or discipline."

But student speech rights off school property took a hit in 2007, when justices ruled that a high school could suspend a student who held a sign reading "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" on a sidewalk across from the school, as they found it to be in connection with a school event and the banner allegedly encouraged illegal drug use.