Court rules that students are allowed to mock their teachers online
By Jeff MillsJune 20th, 2011, 2:15 pmComments (10)
In the internet age, online free speech is an important and contentious issue. With the ubiquity of social media, the global village has been transformed into a gigantic dirty-laundry bazaar. Throwaway comments are picked over and analyzed for deeper meaning. In this environment, teachers are much more likely to get wind of their students' true feelings about them, expressed on sites like Facebook and the moribund MySpace.
Last week, a federal appeals court in Pennsylvania ruled on a couple of cases in which free speech was at the forefront. In the first case, a high-school senior named Justin Layshock had been suspended for ten days for creating a MySpace profile back in 2005 that purported to be from his principal, who found the site "degrading" and "demoralizing." But in Layshock v. Hermitage School District, all fourteen judges were unanimous in finding that his suspension was unconstitutional, in that his conduct took place outside of school, and it caused no real disruption at school.
In the second case, a middle-school girl — unnamed in the ruling — also created an unflattering MySpace profile of her principal, using his photo, but giving him the identity of a bisexual Alabama middle-school principal called "M-Hoe." The student said on the site, among other things, that "M-Hoe" "enjoyed hitting on students and their parents." The girl also ended up getting suspended for ten days, as "M-Hoe" was predictably not amused. In Snyder v. Blue Mountain School District, the court ruled eight to six — much more divided this time — in the girl's favor, saying "the profile was so outrageous that no one took its content seriously."
Knowing that kids say the darnedest things, this is not the last we're going to see of these types of cases, and, moving forward, subjectivity is going to be central in legal assessments of what is protected speech in cyberspace, and what isn't.
Comments ( 10 )
I have a bunch of friends who have devoted a bunch of Facebook profiles to our science teacher, Mr. Curran. Though none about him being bisexual. They aren't that creative.
This is fucking ridiculous. I love how everyone treats the internet like a separate entity from "real life:" it's not. The things that you say and do on it have a way of effecting change in the real world, and while many time said changes are harmless, many times they are not. If we don't start prosecuting online bullying and slandering as real crimes, then a dangerous precedent has been set that would use the internet to do real harm.
oh? and sending a child to juvie for two months for the crime is any better. FUCK YOU
No no, silly troll, the correct response was "That's what the Nazis would do."
If we didn't have people like Faulknersaysrelax to protect everyone from the viciousness of children, what would society come to? These kids in public schools should shit down and shut the fuck up for 7 hours a day so that we can better their lives. If they do anything to disrupt the plan, charge them with a goddamn crime.
The administrators in question should do the same thing about the students in question then tell their parents to go fuck themselves when the parents complain.
+1. That would be an awesome way to deal with this.
That second case sounded libelous (no legal expert or training, but that word came to mind). I wonder what the legality of the issue of libel over school kids and their teachers would entail. Kids always poke fun of teachers, but now if you google a name, the result may be injurious if enough crap is said about you.
Justice is served
agreed, teachers and principals should sit down and shut up. They should be able to take some shit for the amount that they're overpaid. Then they protest anything that threatens to assess their teaching effectiveness. Classic example of scumbags.
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