It seems like there would never be a time when censorship is OK, but what about when someone is making rude and unproductive remarks about a school official?

I can’t live without my computer or BlackBerry, and if and when one or both ceases to work, I am necessarily paralyzed. However, it’s beyond a relief to me that neither existed when I was a kid (of course the Internet was around then, but only for Al Gore), as I have no doubt being online would have meant more trouble for me than I was always already in.

I kind of feel for the girl in Connecticut who called her school administrators “douchebags” on her blog and then got in trouble as a result, particularly since her punishment was just upheld by an appeals court. But on the other hand, it was a stupid thing to do and I think her generation should be learning faster than they are about what is and what is not appropriate online — no matter if it’s a posting on a personal blog or an email from a school account.

Avery Doninger, 20, sued her principal and school superintendent after they barred her from running for secretary of her senior high school class at Lewis S. Mills High School in Burlinton, Conn., after she posted the insult online.

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Seriously, pick a different word.

I’m all over the 1st Amendment. Good stuff, that right to free speech and assembly.

I even agree with the Supreme Court decision to let Fred Phelps and his family of bigots picket funerals. Do I agree with them? No, not even a little. Do I think the Westboro Baptist Church should be arrested for their actions? No, not that either. (I actually wish we’d all start inviting them to our funerals, give them friendly waves and a plate of church lady fried-chicken and hash brown casserole. But that’s something to explore in a different post.)

I’m against laws censoring language (hate speech is an important exception), but I think as individuals we could do more self-regulating — whether or not we’re in front of kids. Because the word “retard”? With every free speech bone in my body, I wish people would just stop saying it. Continue reading »

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Phillip Greaves appeared in court today.

The Huffington Post reported this afternoon that Phillip Greaves, author of The Pedophile’s Guide to Love and Pleasure, is being charged with violating Florida’s obscenity law, “a third-degree felony that could land him in prison for five years.”

John noted on Monday that Polk County, Florida officials had arrested Greaves in his Pueblo, CO home.  He wrote, “Polk Sheriff Grady Judd said that his officers were able to arrest the author on obscenity charges because Greaves had sold and mailed his book to them in Florida,” adding, “He was kind enough to sign it for them.”

Greaves has been assigned a court-appointed public defender, Francis Solorzano, who asked Judge John Kirkland to drop the case.  Solorzano stressed that “There are no images in the book,” arguing that “Any finding of probable cause would tend to have a chilling effect on free speech.”  Kirland told Solorzano “the judge who signed the arrest warrant had already found probable cause and he could not override that decision,” according to HuffPo. Continue reading »

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A teenager who used a couple of curse words on Facebook was suspended last week – even after she was the one beat up by a classmate.

The story comes as no surprise in the wake of schools cracking down on the online lives of both students and staff, but is every comment made online really a case of cyberbullying? Continue reading »

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A week after a teacher was suspended for posting a vague complaint about an unidentified student on her Facebook page, a student from another school is given a pass for posting a specific complaint about a teacher on hers.

Katie Evans is no longer enrolled at Pembrook Pines Charter High School in Florida, but in 2007 she was a senior there and unhappy with one of her teachers.  She set up a Facebook page to vent about “the worst teacher I’ve ever met.”  If she expected sympathy from her fellow students, she didn’t get it.  Instead, she was attacked by students who actually liked the teacher.  Evans responded by taking the page down a few days later.

But Evans’ classmates weren’t the only ones who had a problem with her Facebook complaining.  After school principal Peter Bayer got wind of it, he did more than disagree — he took advantage of his position of power and punished the honors student.  Despite the fact that the page had long been removed, Bayer pulled Evans from her Advanced Placement classes and suspended her for three days. Continue reading »

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A kid from Indiana moves to Louisiana. So when his school says wear your football gear in place of your uniform, is it any surprise he picked his Indianapolis Colts jersey?

Apparently it was for school staff – they called senior Brandon Frost into the office and gave him a dressing down for showing up in blue and white instead of celebrating the New Orleans Saints. Then they told him take it off or go home. Continue reading »

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Despite the fact that virtually every professional organization agrees with the American Psychological Association when they say “efforts to change sexual orientation are unlikely to be successful and involve some risk of harm, contrary to the claims of SOCE practitioners and advocates,” high school students in the Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland were given information from the group Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays last week, claiming that sexual orientation is merely a choice.  And a bad one at that.

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