A federal appeals court in Philadelphia must decide whether a Pennsylvania middle school can suspend a student who, at home on her own time, created a lewd MySpace page aimed at her principal.

The case, argued in the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last week, raises broad issues about the limits of school discipline for off-campus behavior that affects the atmosphere at school. A rash of similar cases have surfaced across the country, with mixed rulings, but so far none has reached the U.S. Supreme Court. (That could change, however, pending the outcome of this 3rd Circuit case.)

The American Civil Liberties Union argues that students enjoy free-speech rights off-campus that protect such parodies, however vulgar. However, a lawyer for the Blue Mountain School District in Schuylkill County, Pa., said the eighth grader’s actions in March 2007 caused a disturbance that reverberated inside school and harmed the principal.

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