UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT

┐ JASON KUTCHINSKI, as parent and next friend to H.K., a │ minor, │ Plaintiff-Appellant, │ > No. 22-1748 │ v. │ │ FREELAND COMMUNITY SCHOOL DISTRICT; MATTHEW │ A. CAIRY and TRACI L. SMITH, in their official and │ individual capacities, │ Defendants-Appellees. │ ┘

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan at Bay City. No. 1:19-cv-13810—Sean F. Cox, District Judge.

Argued: May 1, 2023

Decided and Filed: June 2, 2023

Before: GILMAN, READLER, and MATHIS, Circuit Judges.

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COUNSEL ARGUED: Philip L. Ellison, OUTSIDE LEGAL COUNSEL PLC, Hemlock, Michigan, for Appellant. Jacob G. Lyday, O’NEILL, WALLACE & DOYLE, P.C., Saginaw, Michigan, for Appellees. ON BRIEF: Philip L. Ellison, OUTSIDE LEGAL COUNSEL PLC, Hemlock, Michigan, Matthew E. Gronda, GRONDA PLC, St. Charles, Michigan, for Appellant. Gregory W. Mair, O’NEILL, WALLACE & DOYLE, P.C., Saginaw, Michigan, for Appellees. No. 22-1748 Kutchinski v. Freeland Cmty. Sch. Dist. Page 2

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OPINION _________________

MATHIS, Circuit Judge. H.K., a high-school student at Freeland Community School District, created a fake Instagram account impersonating one of his teachers. The account was benign at first, but soon became graphic, harassing, and threatening when two of his friends added their own posts to the account. News of the account spread fast, fueled by the students’ own efforts. They accepted requests to follow the account and H.K.’s friends tagged teachers in their posts. H.K. eventually decided that the attention was too much and he deleted the account.

The school traced the account to H.K. and the other two students and imposed an immediate five-day suspension pending further investigation. After concluding the investigation and providing H.K. with an administrative hearing on the matter, the school suspended him for ten days.

H.K.’s father, Jason Kutchinski, then sued the school district, the principal, and the superintendent under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, claiming that the ten-day suspension violated H.K.’s free-speech and due-process rights. The district court denied Kutchinski’s motion for partial summary judgment and granted summary judgment to Defendants. Because Defendants had the authority to regulate H.K.’s off-campus speech and because the rule Defendants relied on to discipline H.K. was sufficiently definite, we affirm.

I.

H.K. was at his home as Friday night bled into Saturday morning when he created a fake Instagram account to impersonate his biology teacher, Steven M. Schmidt. He wrote the account’s first post—a photograph of a gas pump with a hypodermic needle embedded in it with the caption “[w]atch out guys, I am concerned for everyone’s safety!” R. 51-3, PageID 1000; R. 51-16, PageID 1063. Later that night, while H.K. played onli