EL CAJON, Calif. — For nearly a month, Kyra has relied on her friends to secretly snap photos of their math teacher's lessons.
Without any further instruction provided, the 12-year-old middle school student, who lives with her family, then has to try and fill in the blanks to finish the assignment.
Kyra does not have an illness which prevents her from having missed nearly a month of school. She does not have a criminal record that bars her from leaving the trailer that she shares with her family.
Kyra has been suspended and now awaits expulsion for a Snapchat message that she posted around December 27 while she was off-campus about a fight that she was in with another student at school in early December.
"The fact that I got in one fight, in one altercation, and I got suspended for the fight, isn't the problem. It's that I made one post and I'm getting threatened with being expelled," Kyra told CBS 8.
Instead of math lessons, Kyra is now getting a private lesson in the First Amendment, a fight that students and young people are embroiled in across the nation over their use of social media and the limits to off-campus free speech.
It is an issue that has landed in the Supreme Court and courtrooms across the country, including San Diego County, and on March 1, 2024, will be discussed at the Cajon Valley Union School District for Kyra's expulsion hearing.
The Snapchat Poll
For Kyra, her decision to post a "Snap" happened while she was on winter break.
The Snapchat post was the culmination of several months of issues Kyra had experienced with another student, who she says was bullying her and some of her friends.
In late October, Kyra went to school administrators about what she said were threats from the other student.
Those alleged threats soon escalated. On December 4, 2023, Kyra and the student got into a fight at Los Coches Creek Middle School.
Students at school that day recorded the December 4, 2023, fight between the two students, and a video of it was posted on social media sites and shared throughout the school.
Kyra and the other student were suspended for two days. Kyra then agreed to sign a stay-away order.
Fast forward nearly one month when Kyra says the social media app prompted her to post her favorite memory for 2023.
"Beating her ass was the best part of my year," Kyra wrote followed by three smiley-face emojis. The post appeared underneath a grainy screenshot of the fight that a student had recorded.
And while the post was automatically deleted after 24 hours by the platform, the parents of the other student took a screenshot and showed it to school administrators.
On January 12, school administrators suspended Kyra for five days, stating that she was guilty of inciting violence and disrupting school activities.
Kyra's father, Scott, immediately protested the suspension. He stood outside of the school parking lot with a poster-sized piece of cardboard.
"I stood outside the school, basically shaming the principal and the superintendent for violating children's and parent's rights," Ludwig told CBS 8. "I stood outside the school for a week and a half straight. I even brought an umbrella and stood there in the rain."
Four days later, Ludwig says without any notice or discussion, district administrators extended Kyra's suspension for an additional five days.
Two days following the extension, on January 18, Ludwig received a notice from the Cajon Valley Union School District stating its intentions to expel Kyra from the post.
The expulsion hearing is now set for March 1. Meanwhile, 12-year-old Kyra struggles to understand why the district is taking such a hard stance against her.
"It's getting harder for me to keep up with my work," said Kyra. "I haven't seen a lot of my friends in a while. And I like, have like C's and D's and F's, which is unusual for me, because I usually have like A's and B's. And it's been hard on me, because I've been stuck at home except for like, going out when whatever. And not being able to be in school. It's just been really hard."
Kyra and her father Scott, admit that posting the screenshot was a mistake.
"I get it, it was like, not necessarily the best decision to post on social media," said Kyra. "I get that that could hurt her in a way."
However, what Scott Ludwig says could have been an opportunity to learn from mistakes, has turned into a fight against censorship and for free speech.
"My daughter has already missed school," said Ludwig. "She's missing her friends. You know, I had a conversation with her regarding the comment and why she made it. So as a parent, I'm doing my part, to teach my daughter how to approach a situation more responsibly."
But Ludwig says that is where it should end, with the parent and not the school district looking to censor his daughter.
"I'm an advocate for the constitution and law," said Ludwig. "This is an infringement upon my daughter's First Amendment right to free speech. It was done off campus on her own time, on her device, and not during school time on her device."
To regulate or not to regulate off-campus speech
The issue of children's off-campus free speech and the school's role in monitoring it has been debated for more than fifty years and in more recent times has landed before state court judges up to the Supreme Court.
In a 1969 Supreme Court case, Tinker v. Des Moines, justices ruled against a school's decision to suspend students for wearing anti-Vietnam War armbands. In that ruling, justices wrote that students do not "shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate."
It was that 1969 Supreme Court ruling that attorneys for a 14-year-old Pennsylvania girl cited in her lawsuit after getting kicked off of her school's cheerleading squad for a year for writing a vulgar message about her school on Snapchat.
"F*%$ school, f*%$ softball, f*%$ cheer, f*%$ everything," wrote the then-14-year-old Brandi Levy after learning she did not make the varsity cheerleading squad.
The school saw the post and suspended her from cheerleading for a year.
Levy sued and the case wound up before the Supreme Court in 2021. In June 2021, justices ruled in favor of Levy 8-to1, finding that the school violated Levy's right to free speech.
While the decision was seen as a win for the First Amendment, justices in the case did not rule that students had free reign to post or say anything while off campus.
Conor Fitzpatrick is a senior attorney at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) in Washington DC. Fitzpatrick and his team have worked on behalf of numerous cases where school administrators have challenged certain types of speech or expression. Those cases include instances where students were suspended for poking fun at school administrators or were disciplined for wearing "Let's Go Brandon" sweatshirts.
"So one thing that the Supreme Court reminded us in [the Brandi Levy case] is that schools are nurseries of democracy," said Fitzpatrick. "That means that schools are supposed to prepare kids for real life. In real life, kids are going to be working alongside and being governed by people who might not think, pray, or talk the same way they do. So the earlier that kids are exposed to other ideas and other views, and have their views challenged and have the ability to challenge other people's arguments, that just prepares them to be better American citizens."
While Fitzpatrick could not comment on Kyra's case specifically, he did say that schools do have the authority to monitor potentially harmful speech or speech that disrupts school activities.
"The Supreme Court established very firm ground rules for schools and what they have to show before they can reach their hand into a kid's home and punish them for what they have to say," said Fitzpatrick. "Unless what a child is posting on social media is substantially disruptive then the job of punishing that student for what they have to say goes to the parents, not to the government."
Cajon Valley Union School District's Response
Ahead of the March 1 expulsion hearing, CBS 8 reached out to Cajon Valley Union School District's Superintendent David Miyashiro about the district's right to expel a student for off-campus speech.
In an email, Miyashiro said that while the district could not comment on specifics, the district weighed additional factors prior to moving forward with expulsion.
"When the District reviews a student’s behavior for possible disciplinary action, we do not discuss publicly the student, or the conduct being examined as we always work to uphold minor students’ privacy rights," wrote Miyashiro. "There is an allegation that the District is considering student discipline over a social media post and while we cannot and will not discuss specifics, we can confirm that this is not an accurate representation of the situation."
Added the superintendent, "In general, it is important for our school community to understand that whenever we review a student’s behavior, we do not limit the examination to one incident or circumstance, rather we look to possible trends in conduct to determine how best to address possible themes that can range from student learning, interactions with students and staff, and student and campus well-being and safety matters."
However, CBS 8 reviewed Kyra's entire school disciplinary record, dating back to the 1st grade. The record showed that in the past two years, Kyra had been disciplined for dress code violations, and for having her phone in her back pocket during class. The document did not show any prior suspensions or acts of violence.
Superintendent Miyashiro did not respond to follow-up questions about Kyra's school disciplinary record.
The Upcoming Hearing
As the March 1 expulsion hearing nears, Kyra and her father are preparing to make their case in front of the panel.
In the meantime, Kyra says she just wants to return to school to see her friends and to get back to math class.
"Honestly, I like love math. But like, it's hard. Like, when I'm not in class, watching a lesson taken on my friend's phone, I'm at home, in my room, sitting there staring at a paper," said Kyra.
Meanwhile, her dad, Scott, says the lesson he has learned is clear.
"We trust the school to educate our kids. The problem is, the schools aren't just educating our kids, they're there telling them and enforcing their will on our children in a manner that violates free thought. And being able to express themselves."
The hearing will be open to the public and will be held at the Education Services Department at Cajon Valley Union School District.