Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter

CAT Tracks for December 22, 2007 FREEDOM OF SPEECH

Okay, originally posted and e-mailed the first story...then found the second.

I'll show my bias and disagree with the first story's rationale and agree with (both sides) in the second.

I'd like to see the school district stand its ground in the "Facebook Case". An argument could be made, since the students' lawyer admits to the possibility/likelihood of defamation of the teacher...a crime. For students, including one in the teacher's class, to initiate and post lies that can impact the teacher's relationship with students, staff, and teachers and possibly affect his employment at that school...gotta believe that the school is entitled to take action.

The second case...the "conservative teacher" is going to have to develop thicker skin or remove herself from exposure to public school students. It IS the 21st Century...it "ain't" your grandma's public school!

Taylor honor students file suit after expulsion

BY KIMBALL PERRY

A Web prank that resulted in a teacher being labeled a "pedophile" and the suspension of three honor roll students at Taylor High School has become a fight about free speech.

The students are accused of creating an entry in November on Facebook.com - an online social networking Web site - that included the face and last name of a Taylor High teacher.

That entry referred to the teacher, in what the students' lawyer insists was a parody, as a "pedophile," noted that he was interested in men and a member of the Cincinnati chapter of the North American Man Boy Love Association, a controversial group that advocates men have sex with young male children.

While unusual, the case should have no impact on free speech or education-law issues because it is similar to dozens of other cases across the country and several in Ohio already decided, local American Civil Liberties Union attorney Scott Greenwood said.

In those cases, Greenwood said courts ruled uniformly that students cannot be punished by schools on issues that don't involve schools, including calling school employees names.

"It's not the business of school administrators or school boards to ride herd on what students do off campus ... even if (those actions) are highly offensive," Greenwood said.

The resolution for such issues, courts have ruled, is for the offended person to file a defamation suit, Greenwood said.

"It is virtually a certainty that suspensions absolutely violate the free speech of the students," Greenwood said.

The Facebook.com entry included a picture of the teacher copied from the Three Rivers School District's Web site. After school officials discovered the entry, the teens were suspended for 10 days and expelled from school for another 80 days beginning Jan. 2.

The students and their lawyer argue that they shouldn't be punished because they created the entry in their homes, on their own time, and access to the entry was limited to seven people.

The students already have served the 10-day suspension.

After the school board voted last week to uphold the students' punishment, the students and their parents filed a federal lawsuit, accusing the school district of violating the students' free-speech rights.

"Each of the boys has written an apology to the teacher and questioned whether they exercised their best judgment," their lawyer, Marc Mezibov, said Wednesday.

Despite that, Mezibov said, the punishment the school district said it would impose shows "the school overstepped its bounds."

None of the families of the three teens returned calls from a reporter, on Mezibov's advice.

Neither Three Rivers Superintendent Rhonda Bohannon nor Taylor High Principal Randy Mecklenborg returned calls.

The parents, in the suit, say the additional expulsion will result in their honor roll sons being unfairly punished academically for a prank that didn't involve school time, facilities, equipment or activities.

They asked U.S. District Judge Susan Dlott to order the public school district to allow their sons to attend classes.

Monday, Dlott ordered the school district to allow the teens to attend school while the case is pending. A full hearing is set for Dec. 28.

The district responded that the incident - and keeping the teens in school - would cause unspecified disruptions and lessen morale of teachers, 14 of whom already have requested their photos be deleted from district Web sites.

But school officials "do not allege that the incident had any direct result on classes," Dlott wrote in her ruling.

At least one of the three sophomores had a class taught by the teacher, but Mezibov wouldn't say why the students picked him to parody. "I think this was a teacher who wasn't very well-liked."

The issue was brought to the attention of school officials by another teacher who had access to the site and saw the parody.

The suit asks that the students be reinstated to school and the disciplinary actions deleted from their record and for the district to pay the students' attorney fees and unspecified money damages.

Student told to cover up lesbian T-shirt

By DIONNE WALKER
Associated Press Writer

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- A high school official made a mistake by telling a student to cover up a lesbian-themed T-shirt or face suspension, the school's principal said Friday, a day after the ACLU demanded the school apologize to the teen.

Bethany Laccone, 17, said she was asked to cloak a logo of two interlocked female symbols while attending a hotel management class this month at I.C. Norcom High School in Portsmouth. She's a senior at nearby Woodrow Wilson High School, where she has not faced a similar ultimatum.

In a letter sent Thursday, the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia asked Norcom administrators to remove any mention of the incident from Laccone's records and agree not to similarly censor other students.

ACLU leaders want administrators to clarify that students can express political views. The school's dress code prohibits "bawdy, salacious or sexually suggestive messages."

The ACLU gave the school until Jan. 11 to respond or possibly face further action.

"What's happening to Bethany Laccone is a clear-cut case of unconstitutional censorship," said Kent Willis, executive director of the Virginia chapter.

On Friday, Norcom Principal Lynn Briley said the school would comply.

"Yes, we did make a mistake," Briley told The Virginian-Pilot newspaper of Norfolk.

Briley agreed that Laccone had been censored, but said no note had been placed in her file. She said she would apologize to Laccone and try to meet the group's other demands.

After Laccone's teacher asked her to cover the shirt, she said she zipped up her jacket. One week later, she again wore the bright red shirt, which she said is her favorite.

Laccone said her teacher again asked her to cover her shirt or go to the assistant principal's office. Once there, Laccone said she was given a choice.

"I could either zip up my jacket, turn my shirt inside out, or get suspended," said Laccone, who covered the shirt, but told her parents what had happened.

According to the ACLU, administrators later told Laccone's father the shirt had upset a conservative instructor and interfered with her ability to teach.

In Thursday's letter, they argue the T-shirt "intended to convey a particularized, political message that lesbian identity should be celebrated and is a source of pride."

Laccone said she just wants to wear her shirt.

"I don't feel like I should have to hide my sexuality," she said.