Student kicked out of school for myspace parody

[Sterlingdog]

This is just ridiculous.



ACLU Sues on Behalf of Pa. Student
By Associated Press

PITTSBURGH - A high school senior who was transferred to an alternative school as punishment for parodying his principal on the Internet is suing the district, arguing it violated his freedom of speech.

Justin Layshock had used his grandmother's computer and the Web site MySpace.com to create a phony profile under the principal's name and photo.

The site asks questions, and Justin filled in answers peppered with vulgarities, fat jokes and, to the question "what did you do on your last birthday?" the response: "too drunk to remember," according to the lawsuit filed on Justin's behalf by the American Civil Liberties Union.

School officials weren't amused. They questioned the teenager about the site on Dec. 21, and he apologized to the principal, the ACLU said.

Then, on Jan. 6, the district suspended Justin for 10 days and transferred him to an alternative program typically reserved for students with behavior or attendance problems, according to the lawsuit. He also was banned from school events, including tutoring and graduation ceremonies.

"The school's punishment affects his education," said Witold Walczak, Pennsylvania Legal Director of the ACLU. "In this critical last semester, Justin's opportunities to gain admission to college may be irreparably damaged."

According to the lawsuit, Pennsylvania State University notified Justin that his application had been put on "a registration hold" and asked for more information about the suspension. "It is unknown how or why the university had received this information, since it is supposed to be confidential under federal-student-privacy laws," the lawsuit says.

Officials with the Hermitage School District declined to comment.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh, seeks Justin's immediate reinstatement to his regular school. A hearing for a temporary order is set for Monday.

"Not to excuse it, but school officials need to understand that they're not parents," Walczak said. "School officials can't reach into parents' homes and tell them how to raise their kids."

[Drew]

The ACLU has time for this sort of shit??...That's typical of these jerkoffs.

But there's still no word from them about the outrage that's going on in the Vermont justice sytem.

This is why the ACLU is a total fuck up and waste of an organization! To hell with them!

[SLCPUNK]

The ACLU has time for this sort of shit??...That's typical of these jerkoffs.

But there's still no word from them about the outrage that's going on in the Vermont justice sytem.

This is why the ACLU is a total fuck up and waste of an organization! To hell with them!

What is going on in the Vermont justice system?

Why should the ACLU be on that case?

ACLU defends everybody, not just who you want them to.

[Surfrider]

The ACLU has time for this sort of shit??...That's typical of these jerkoffs.

But there's still no word from them about the outrage that's going on in the Vermont justice sytem.

This is why the ACLU is a total fuck up and waste of an organization! To hell with them!

What is going on in the Vermont justice system?

Why should the ACLU be on that case?

ACLU defends everybody, not just who you want them to.

They defend everyone, if it furthers their political agenda.

[Drew]

The ACLU has time for this sort of shit??...That's typical of these jerkoffs.

But there's still no word from them about the outrage that's going on in the Vermont justice sytem.

This is why the ACLU is a total fuck up and waste of an organization! To hell with them!

What is going on in the Vermont justice system?

Why should the ACLU be on that case?

ACLU defends everybody, not just who you want them to.

A Vermont judge recently sentenced a child molestor to 60 days in jail. Just this past week the judge re-seneteced the molestor to a 3 to 10 year sentence which means, he'll more than likely only serve 3 years and be out. Where the hell is the ACLU on this one? It's insane!!! The ACLU is always high on themselves about protecting human rights. Well, what about the human rights of this little child?

It's sickening that their suing over this little shits website while there is a by far more important case in Vermont. Wake the fuck up ACLU!!!

The ACLU has time for this sort of shit??...That's typical of these jerkoffs.

But there's still no word from them about the outrage that's going on in the Vermont justice sytem.

This is why the ACLU is a total fuck up and waste of an organization! To hell with them!

What is going on in the Vermont justice system?

Why should the ACLU be on that case?

ACLU defends everybody, not just who you want them to.

They defend everyone, if it furthers their political agenda.

Your are exactly right!

[Sterlingdog]

Forget about the ACLU for a second.  How about the fact that this kid was kicked out of school, possibly now rejected from college, all because some principal didn't like his sense of humor.  I thought satire was protected speech?

[SLCPUNK]

The ACLU has time for this sort of shit??...That's typical of these jerkoffs.

But there's still no word from them about the outrage that's going on in the Vermont justice sytem.

This is why the ACLU is a total fuck up and waste of an organization! To hell with them!

What is going on in the Vermont justice system?

Why should the ACLU be on that case?

ACLU defends everybody, not just who you want them to.

They defend everyone, if it furthers their political agenda.

You and your "agendas"!

What agenda??

[AxlsMainMan]

"Not to excuse it, but school officials need to understand that they're not parents," Walczak said. "School officials can't reach into parents' homes and tell them how to raise their kids."

This is the most crucial point raised by the article, and definatetly needs to be assessed pronto. School authorities have to start realizing they are responsible strictly for overseeing the education of their student body, not disciplining and suspending kids for mildly stepping out of line...it's just insane.

My little nephew got suspended for 2 days from public school last week, for "disrespect to authorities". When I heard that one, I almost burst into tears laughing, I mean the kid is only 8 and he got sent home for having a temper tantrum on his teacher.

Attendance is the main thing that pisses the school systems off, but thing is they cant do dick-fuck-all to make the damn kids go, its entirely up to them, although if skipping is out of hand, they dont have to keep that student on any longer. You see, giving a 20 minute detention for skipping a 75 minute class aint gunna rectify the problem at all, it's the teachers who have to make there lessons more INTERESTING to their class, and then you'll have no discipline issues.

In my grade 11 years of high school, I got suspended for a week for possession, and the principal was droning on about how it was "his mission to rid the school of marijuana" I merely looked at him and asked how the war on drugs had been going in the US, and he added another week to it for "my smart mouth"

Fuckin' school systems are turning into the next Nazi Party...scary but true...just glad Im done

[SLCPUNK]

The ACLU has time for this sort of shit??...That's typical of these jerkoffs.

But there's still no word from them about the outrage that's going on in the Vermont justice sytem.

This is why the ACLU is a total fuck up and waste of an organization! To hell with them!

What is going on in the Vermont justice system?

Why should the ACLU be on that case?

ACLU defends everybody, not just who you want them to.

A Vermont judge recently sentenced a child molestor to 60 days in jail. Just this past week the judge re-seneteced the molestor to a 3 to 10 year sentence which means, he'll more than likely only serve 3 years and be out. Where the hell is the ACLU on this one? It's insane!!! The ACLU is always high on themselves about protecting human rights. Well, what about the human rights of this little child?

It's sickening that their suing over this little shits website while there is a by far more important case in Vermont. Wake the fuck up ACLU!!!

The judge is acting within the law. Sadly child molestors are often given PROBATION for their first offense. Rarely do they do long stints in the clink.

To say they help both sides because they have an agenda is a joke. They help both sides because that is what they do. They help defend civil liberties of people who live in America. Don't you think it is a little paranoid to deny that they help people by claiming they "don't do it because they mean it, they do it because they 'have an agenda'.

Please.....take the tinfoil hats off!

[SLCPUNK]

Forget about the ACLU for a second.  How about the fact that this kid was kicked out of school, possibly now rejected from college, all because some principal didn't like his sense of humor.  I thought satire was protected speech?

THANKYOU!!!

[Walk]

College should only be for upper class/caste elites. The egalitarianism of the current system has degraded the value of the achievement. Any moron can make it through now. This kid will probably be happier as a layman; he doesn't have the intelligence or ideals to go to college. His alcohol joke was lame and old as the hills. And come on, fat jokes?! He could try to be more original. 

Good satire encourages social change and is typically witty and interesting. What this kid did was slander. There was nothing cute or intellectual about it.

It's disgusting that he used his GRANDMOTHER'S computer to do this trash.  He's the kind of kid who gets into identity theft in a few years. This lesson to him should keep him out of federal prison, if anything else. The ACLU, of course, get their priorities confused. But that's just what liberals do.

Ultimately, obedience must be taught to our children. They must learn the slave mentality before they learn the master way of thinking. Even then, a very small number are even capable of being overmen anyway. There will be plenty of good students to take this one's place. Nothing to see here.

Child molesters should get the death penalty.

[Genesis]

Why is this board filled with posts about weird lawsuits? 

[Drew]

The judge is acting within the law. Sadly child molestors are often given PROBATION for their first offense. Rarely do they do long stints in the clink.

It's a sad situation that the justice sytem continuously allows this to go on. It shouldn't be within the law for this to happen.

But still, no word from the ACLU yet!

[AxlsMainMan]

Why is this board filled with posts about weird lawsuits??

People post what they want to post on this part of the board, and sometimes strange lawsuits are interesting to analyze/discuss.

[journey]

I can sort of understand why he was kicked out of school. He was falsely impersonating someone and showing that person in a very negative light. It would've been different if the student was playing a prank on one of his friends or something. However, the principal is someone everyone knows in that community and it could really destroy his reputation.

[nevermiss24]

if the stuff he said was true then he has a rite to say it

[Sterlingdog]

I can sort of understand why he was kicked out of school. He was falsely impersonating someone and showing that person in a very negative light. It would've been different if the student was playing a prank on one of his friends or something. However, the principal is someone everyone knows in that community and it could really destroy his reputation.

I might agree with you if there was a chance that anyone could think this was real.  From the description, it sounds like it was very extreme and you would have to be an idiot to think it was real.  No reasonable person would think a school principal would write that stuff and use his own name. 

I went to high school with Billie Joe Armstrong (Green Day).  Do you know how many times he has "registered" on Classmates.com?  Should Billie Joe hunt all those people down and sue them for impersonating him?  Of course not.  Its stupid, but its not hurting anyone. 

[RichardNixon]

College should only be for upper class/caste elites.

So if you're a rich asshole like Bush you get to go to Yale and Harvard and to hell with everyone else?

College should be for anyone who wants it...

[Skeba]

"Not to excuse it, but school officials need to understand that they're not parents," Walczak said. "School officials can't reach into parents' homes and tell them how to raise their kids."

This is the most crucial point raised by the article, and definatetly needs to be assessed pronto. School authorities have to start realizing they are responsible strictly for overseeing the education of their student body, not disciplining and suspending kids for mildly stepping out of line...it's just insane.

My little nephew got suspended for 2 days from public school last week, for "disrespect to authorities". When I heard that one, I almost burst into tears laughing, I mean the kid is only 8 and he got sent home for having a temper tantrum on his teacher.

Attendance is the main thing that pisses the school systems off, but thing is they cant do dick-fuck-all to make the damn kids go, its entirely up to them, although if skipping is out of hand, they dont have to keep that student on any longer. You see, giving a 20 minute detention for skipping a 75 minute class aint gunna rectify the problem at all, it's the teachers who have to make there lessons more INTERESTING to their class, and then you'll have no discipline issues.

In my grade 11 years of high school, I got suspended for a week for possession, and the principal was droning on about how it was "his mission to rid the school of marijuana" I merely looked at him and asked how the war on drugs had been going in the US, and he added another week to it for "my smart mouth"

Fuckin' school systems are turning into the next Nazi Party...scary but true...just glad Im done

A High School senior? I'm not sure how the US schoolsystem works, but I'm under the impression that the kid was there of his own free will? Right? The Junior High being the last step of the mandatory schooling out there? If he was there under his own free will, and had chosen to study more, why would he go after the principle, the highest person in the hierarchy of a school? Like journey said, it would've been different if it was a prank on his friends.

I agree that the punishment was very extreme. But I disagree with the origianl article with the whole parenting thing. And appearently with you AxlsMainMan. I _do_ think that the schoolsystem plays a very important role along with parents in raising kids. Kids spend from 4-8 hours in school every day excluding the weekends. It's about 1/3 of the time that kids are awake during a day. If the school paid no attention to how the kids behaved towards the staff of the school it would give them a signal that it was ok. Now I know that this sort of 'raising of the kids' should happen more early on in school. Not when the guy is at senior high. And I don't think that a kid should be punished by the school if the person he attacked was some random guy. That would be the parents' job. But this was the principle. He knew that what he was doing was just stupid. So I do think that it was right from the school to punish him, just don't agree that he should've been excluded from all the events from the school and the whole sending to a program for people with attention or behavior problems. It does seem too extreme. Although the article doesn't mention if this was an isolated event or if this type of behavior had been going on for a longer period of time.

And AxlsMainMan... You can't be mad at the school for giving you detention for breaking the school's rules... And I can understand his reaction after you pretty clearly provoked him after you were given the punishment. Don't really agree that that's what he should've done, but I understand him.

[Sterlingdog]

His actions occurred outside of school.  If he was in the principals face, or on school property, that would be different.  But outside of school if he wants to make fun of his teachers, he should be able to.  He didn't hurt anyone.  If the principal's reputation was damaged, it was more from his over-reaction than anything this kid said.

And what about this part:

"According to the lawsuit, Pennsylvania State University notified Justin that his application had been put on "a registration hold" and asked for more information about the suspension. "It is unknown how or why the university had received this information, since it is supposed to be confidential under federal-student-privacy laws," the lawsuit says."

So it sounds like the principal (or someone at the school) has such a vendetta against this kid that they contacted the University to keep him out.  That's far more damaging than a fake profile on myspace.