Our friend Kurt Opprecht has been attending the groundbreaking trial of the 17 year old blogger waging a bitter fight against her Connecticut high school. Folks may recall the story of Avery Doninger, who used the word "douchebag" to lambaste school administrators in a Live Journal entry.
Doninger was upset that school Superintendent Paula Schwartz had canceled a Battle of the Bands and went home to her computer and ripped them a new a-hole via RSS. The Hartford Courant quotes her as saying:
"Jamfest is canceled due to the douchbags [sic] in central office." She
also encouraged others to write or call Schwartz "to piss her off
more..."
The school denied her the right to be class secretary, even after she won via write-in; she was therefore also denied a speaking slot at her graduation this year. It's baffling that someone who spoke outside of class and did not disrupt it could be punished for a simple rant-- worse, that a lower court judge would disagree and deny Doninger's appeal.
Opprecht describes how the case is unfortunately playing out on appeal:
“What if Avery had said, ‘Kill the
principal,’” one justice asked [yesterday]. “What if there were no rules on what a
student could say?” But over time the arguments boiled down to two
salient issues. One, offensive language can clearly be controlled on
school grounds, but can’t possibly be prohibited everywhere. In this
case, the internet has to be a place where free speech is allowed. Two,
speech that is disruptive to the educational environment can be
limited, even off school grounds, but Avery’s blog entries seem to have
been only mildly disruptive, and probably justifiably so.
"Kill the principal." This is the same nonsensical argument made by, say, opponents of gay marriage, i.e. what's next, dog marraiges? You don't bust a pot smoker for smack possession just because you think weed is a "gateway drug." It's not about what comes next, it's about free speech and what was specifically said that may overstep the bounds. As Opprecht states, clearly, calling a teacher a douchebag on your Live Journal does not disqualify you from First Amendment protection.
We'll be hearing from our court reporter friend again as to whether the judges see this case the same way we do....
[Photo by Kurt Opprecht, link via his blog.]
