Freedom of speech vs. freedom from speech

There's an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal about school administrators and their attitudes/actions towards students' personal, out-of-school blogs. In some cases, blog postings are being used to document harassment. I've thought lots about cyberbullying, so this makes some sense to me. Unfortunately, like date rape, you face more danger and hurt from the people you know than from the people you don't know. Unless a blog is made private through password protection or some other means, its contents are open to the public. School administrators are not violating free speech rights if they discipline students who broadcast defamatory statements in publicly accessible blogs.

On the other hand, I don't get the school administrators who are attempting to outright ban personal blogging and the use of social networking services such as MySpace.com or Facebook.com. Minors do have a constitutional right to free speech. Schools may as well ban student use of pencils because of the harm these potential "weapons" might cause. So what is the straight scoop about student blogging? The Electronic Frontier Foundation has published a nice FAQ on this fascinating topic.