Last September, some middle school girls in rural Tennessee filmed a TikTok video while waiting to begin cheerleading practice. The video depicts a girl entering the classroom with a cellphone in her hand. She says, "put your hands up." Classmates then begin flickering the lights while other girls fall and lie motionless. Another student enters the room and acts shocked, while most of the girls giggle. In the video, a line of text reads "to be continued. . . ."
What the girls, who ranged in age from 11 -12 did was stupid. What the Greene County Sheriff did next was more stupid. Sixteen girls are now facing disorderly conduct charges for participating in the video. There are two problems with this charge. First, it's not merited by the statute's language. Second, it violates the First Amendment.
Here's what constitutes Disorderly Conduct under Tennessee law:
A person commits an offense who, in a public place and with intent to cause public annoyance or alarm:
- Engages in fighting or in violent or threatening behavior;
- Refuses to obey an official order to disperse issued to maintain public safety in dangerous proximity to a fire, hazard, or other emergency; or
- Creates a hazardous or physically offensive condition by any act that serves no legitimate purpose.
Numbers 2 and 3 don't apply, so the Sheriff must be hanging his hat on number 1. But, to use a phrase popular in Tennessee, "that dog won't hunt." No one was fighting and no one was acting violently. And does the Sheriff really think a group of silly girls laughing and playing dead is a threat? How? And to whom? The legal definition of "threat" "a communication or action that is of sufficient consequence to cause a reasonable fear that non-compliance will result in the victim, or another person being subjected to the wrongful action contemplated by the communication or action." That definition in no way describes the TikTok video.
And it almost goes without saying that the video is protected by the First Amendment. As I said, the video isn't a true threat, nor is it "fighting words." Those categories of speech aren't protected by the First Amendment, but the video doesn't fall under either category. Interestingly, the girls' school doesn't consider the video a threat. It released a statement indicating it went through the Tennessee mandate threat assessment process and determined it was "girls acting silly and there was no threat."
In its statement, the Sheriff's Department said it's important for kids to be held accountable through the court system. Important or not, Greene County can't just make up charges to get its point across. Even silly 11-year-olds have free speech rights.
To reiterate, what the girls did was stupid. But they're middle schoolers. As a parent of four, I can attest that middle schoolers occasionally do stupid things. I get it. What I don't get is the Greene County Sheriff's overreaction.
