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Teen Kicked Off Student Council for "Douchebag" Blog Post

by Terrence O'Brien on June 3, 2008 at 08:32 AM

Teen Kicked Off Student Council for
Blog posts and social networking sites have cost people jobs, relationships, and freedom. But it's rare that high school students get blatantly censored and reprimanded for using for using foul language on said online outlets outside of school.

Avery Doninger was the class secretary at Lewis S. Mills High School in Burlington, Connecticut, but was barred for running for re-election her senior year after she referred to school officials as "douchebags" in posting on her personal blog.

The trouble began when the school repeatedly delayed a battle of the bands the student government had organized. After being rescheduled twice already, the school wanted to reschedule again because a particular teacher could not make the event to work the lighting equipment. When the student government suggested hiring a professional or letting a parent work the equipment, the school balked.

Avery and members of the council sent an e-mail out to parents and students encouraging them to contact the district superintendent to complain. This resulted in a flood of calls. According to the students, the school then threatened to cancel the battle of the bands altogether, though the school disputes this claim. It was then that a riled Avery went home and wrote on her personal blog:

"jamfest is cancelled due to douchebags in central office. here is an email that we sent to a ton of people and asked them to forward to everyone in their address book to help get support for jamfest. basically, because we sent it out, Paula Schwartz is getting a TON of phone calls and emails and such. we have so much support and we really appriciate it. however, she got pissed off and decided to just cancel the whole thing all together. [...] And here is a letter my mom sent to Paula [Schwartz] and cc'd Karissa [Niehoff] to get an idea of what to write if you want to write something or call her to piss her off more. im down. "
Jamfest eventually did happen, but a school official found the post and decided to bar her from running for re-election and from speaking at graduation because she represented a "foreseeable risk of substantial disruption."

Avery and her mother filed suit claiming the school was violating the teenagers 1st Amendment rights. The district court disagreed and the case was appealed. The appeals court, however, concurred with the original ruling, saying that while Avery has a right to vulgar or offensive speech, she was subject to disciplinary action because the post was related to school activities and could conceivably lead to disruption. The court voiced sympathy for Avery's plight, but ultimately decided her rights were not violated, stating, "We are not called upon, however, to decide whether the school officials in this case exercised their discretion wisely... we are not authorized to intervene absent 'violations of specific constitutional guarantees.'"

The concern here is the vague nature of the decision. Avery threatened no specific harm or actions, and no major disruptions ever took place. This decision may set a disturbing legal precedent for schools to take action against its students' extra curricular writings. [Source: Hartford Courant, via Ars Technica]

Tags: blogging, censorship, high school, HighSchool, lawsuits, social networking, SocialNetworking

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