So what are some of these laws student groups have to meet in order to be compliant with these laws, you ask? Here is just one example – The Equal Access Act. Under the EAA (20 U.S.C. § 4071 et seq.) and U.S. Department of Education guidance, student groups must be student-initiated and student-led. They must run their own activities and retain day-to-day decision making authority.
In the case of TPUSA, all high school clubs are required to share access to their social media with the parent organization. (Who, then, is responsible if the student’s information is hacked or sold? Some worry about these things and for good reason.) This mandatory surrender of social media access, goes beyond guidance and into direct oversight and enforcement authority. Control and influence over decisions about speakers or activities for example, would challenge whether a group is student lead or “controlled or directed” by a non-school organization.
Would it be a concern if these accounts were blocked and access denied to school administrators or parents? Why is social media control legally significant? If a national organization owns the chapter’s social media accounts, requires student officers to turn over passwords, reserves the right to take over, manage, or remove content, and can override student messaging or shut accounts down- this is not symbolic affiliation — it is operational
control. With such control, the group’s “public voice” is relinquished as the organization takes over and controls the platform affecting many things such as messaging, organizing and recruitment.
You probably want to assure your school administrators and boards of education are versed in and complying with all relevant laws, of which this is only one, as they review and approve clubs at your high schools.
Our jobs as parents require we ask these kinds of questions.
Keep asking. We’ll keep answering.