The line between online and offline life continues to blur as yet another lawsuit is being brought against a school that punished students over pictures posted to an online social media website. Two sophomore girls at Churubusco High School in Fort Wayne, Indiana were banned from extracurricular activities after sexually suggestive pictures posted to MySpace during summer vacation ended up in the hands of school officials. The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of the girls, claiming that the punishment went too far by violating the students' free speech rights and resulted in their "humiliation" as they were forced to apologize to an all-male coaches board.

The photos in question were taken at a sleepover with friends during summer vacation. In the photos, the girls were wearing lingerie and "pretending to kiss or lick a large multi-colored novelty lollipop shaped phallus," according to the complaint. None of the photos or captions made any reference whatsoever to Churubusco High School. Obviously the two girls didn't want everyone to see the pictures, so they posted them with the privacy controls set so only friends could see them. However, the photos were copied and eventually ended up on the desk of Austin Couch, the school's principal.

Couch then punished the girls based on the school's athletic code, which provides sanctions for student athletes that engage in behavior in or out of school that "creates a disruptive influence on the discipline, good order, moral or educational environment at Churubusco High School." The two girls where barred from participating in any extracurricular activities, made to apologize for the photos to an all-male coaches board (which the complaint describes as "profoundly embarrassing"), and forced to undergo "humiliating" counseling.

The lawsuit once again brings up issues of privacy rights, free speech rights, and how far schools can encroach on a student's life outside of school hours and school grounds. While a court ruling this year determined that a blog post to a MySpace page can't be construed as "private," that case didn't look at the issue of content published using the privacy controls provided by MySpace or Facebook.

John Palfrey, a Harvard University law professor and co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, said that the idea of privacy on social networking websites is merely an illusion, even with added privacy controls. He also believes that schools have a right to regulate a student's online activities, but the court will have to determine if the two girls in this case had their First Amendment right violated. "The fact that it took place in cyberspace instead of in a classroom doesn't mean you don't enforce the rule," he told the AP.

Balancing a student's right to freedom of expression with a school's imperative to provide a disruption-free learning environment has become more difficult as high school and even junior high students continue flocking to the likes of MySpace and Facebook.

Courts have ruled in the past that behavior outside of school, including postings to social network sites, can be subject to punishment by school officials if that behavior can been shown to be disruptive at school. However, ACLU legal director Ken Falk thinks this case doesn't meet that criterion. "We all did things when we were sophomores in high school that can be construed as immature or problematic or whatever, but that is not the issue here," he told the Associated Press. "The issue is what possible impact this could have on the school environment, and the answer is none."

These issues continue to crop up, and while the policy of limiting schools' authority only to behavior that has an affect on the school environment seems reasonable, it may need to be addressed, as McCarthy suggested, either with specific legislation or clear legal precedent. If nothing else, the lawsuit is yet another reminder that no matter what attempts are made to secure access to certain content online, there's no guarantee it will remain private once a digital file leaves the confines of your own personal hard drive.