Legal Question in Constitutional Law in Pennsylvania

My son plays basketball for a Catholic elementary school. His coach is terrible. Eight months ago on my facebook page I posted some things about her. I said she was clueless, psycho and that I want to slap her upside the head. Which I had no intention of doing and have never done. Yesterday both my husband and I were summoned to a meeting with the Principal and the Priest of the church. I refused to go, but my husband went and was told that my comments were seen on facebook by a parent and they found them offensive. We were told that if the comments did not come off our children would not be permitted to return to the school next year because we sign a memorandum of understanding saying we will be "good catholics". My husband asked who the person was who found the comments offensive, but they would not tell him. After the meeting he told me what happened. I took me 2 hours to find the comments from November/December of 2009. We don't know if the person printed them off at the time they appeared of just went through page after page of my facebook account. At first I did not want to delete the posts, but husband and I were worried they would yell at our sons so I did delete them. What I want to know is can they legally make me delete what I write on facebook? Isn't it my constitutional right to put on facebook what I want to say? It didn't threaten her and I never mentioned her name. The person who found the comments went and showed them around the school to parents. No one would have known about them if that parent hadn't have printed them off. Do I have a case for legal action?


Asked on 6/02/10, 11:03 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Edward Hoffman Law Offices of Edward A. Hoffman

The First Amendment only limits what the government can do. Your church and the private school your son attends are not part of the government. The Fist Amendment does not limit what private parties can do, especially when what they want to do is allowed under a contract that the parties all signed.

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Answered on 6/02/10, 2:30 pm


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