This past Monday the federal Third Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled, En banc, that public schools cannot punish students for online speech made off-campus.
In two separate cases two students created online social profiles of their respective principals at the website Myspace.com. The profiles contained vulgar language and lewd suggestions.
In 2005, Justin Layshock, created a MySpace profile his principal’s name and completed a survey saying he was too drunk to remember his birthday, smokes “big blunts” and under “Interests” listed “Transgender, Appreciators of Alcoholic Beverages.”
The other student, named “J.S.” created a MySpace profile of her principal in 2007. J.S. said the principal’s interests are “detention, being a tight ass, spending time with my child (who looks like a gorilla).” And in the “about me” section said, “For those who want to be my friend, and aren’t in my school[,] I love children, sex (any kind), dogs, long walks on the beach, tv, being a dick head, and last but not least my darling wife who looks like a man (who satisfies my needs ) MY FRAINTRAIN….”
It’s a sad commentary on our society that one of our most precious rights is litigated so that two brats can ridicule their teachers with impunity. – Ed.
8 comments:
wait a minute... So you can impersonate and write slander against someones name and that is OK??
Anon 1852 -
I assume you are referring to the students. No, it's not OK, but a court said it was.
Couldn't those victims sue for slander in a civil court? Money talks ...
I'd be willing to bet the perps violated the terms of agreement of those social sites.
in any other public forum this would be libelous and subject to slander charges
and our city council is afraid of being sued by someone who might offended by recitation of the Lord's prayer...go figure.
I think what they are saying is the schools can't punish them for things that are not done on school time. The principals can probably go after them in court.
so what if the principal made a profile.....? :)
Anon 8:34 - you are correct. The issue was that the students were punished by the school system for things that were not done on school property, time, or with school assets. I completely agree with the ruling.
Is it morally right what they did? No. But that is something their parents will have to take up with them and punish them for, not the school system.
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