What is the law concerning weblogs and schools?

Recently, my private school has written up over 30 or so students for social webpages such as Xanga and Myspace. They asked for the student's email (username), password, and they gave five demerits (these go on your record and count towards suspension or expulsion) for it.

Now, there was a rule stating that if you had a blog, you were to register it to the school. This was so they can check up on it and make sure no profanity or secular (yes, it's a Christian school) material was on it. Also, you were to sign a contract saying you were to abide by the school rules in and outside of campus.

My question is if they can do it. I see that the contract does state it clearly, but I am not sure whether it is even legal for a school to control one's actions outside of school. Also, even though you have to register your blog, does that mean you have to give your password? Your password is valuable and can be linked to other accounts.

Thank you for your educated answers, everybody!

What is the law concerning weblogs and schools?

Unfortunately, because they are a private school, they can pretty much do whatever they want. One thing to look at, though, is if they take in any state or federal money. If they do, they become what's called a "state actor." State actors are not allowed to limit what is said by a student, on a blog or otherwise.

What is the law concerning weblogs and schools?

YIKES!!!...that's WAAAAY beyond "invasion of privacy" issues...this smacks of "religious censorship";what's next, censoring what phone numbers on your students' cell phones?...

What if the student doesn't HAVE a computer(or access to one at the town's library)...then what?...expulsion because this means that the school's administration CAN'T check out what he/she wrote about, regardless of whether it's school-related or what?...

This stinks...

Suggestion:post this story to WorldNet Daily, explain to the website owner about this situation, and hopefully the stpry gets posted, and this will embarrass the administration into dropping the "draconian" rules...good luck...