Abusing First Amendment Rights

[Solecord]

Read this article.

Stuff like this gets me mad. The kid creates an icon that shows one of his teachers being killed. He gets suspended for a semester and then sues the school board over the punishment saying his first amendment rights allow him to create such an icon and publicly display it.

Why do people think they can do whatever they want and use the first amendment to hide behind when the consequences are handed down? In the USA everyone has constitutional rights, but these rights aren't simply free for all. These rights come with some sort of responsibility. If you don't have personal responsibility and any sort of morals, then you should be punished. Its one thing is the kid actually did something smart to protest against his teacher, but to create something showing him being killed? Come on, this kind deserves the suspension. Maybe it's time kids are taught responsibility instead of thinking no consequences can handed down from inapporpriate behaviour.

On a positive note, the court system ruled on the case, siding with the school board and not the kid.

[seighten]

nt

[R00k]

I havent read this article, nor seen the video. But I can only say that prohibiting the animated gif (video sequence), would respect the rights of the families.
If i was an innocent bystander, while attending a party, and saw two people having sex thru a partially open door, from across the room only to later relize that i had captured on my cell/cam phone a date rape, is it legally warrented that i post this media on the net to protest date rapes??
Instead he shuld have shown a picture of this teacher and overlayed a message about his death, in a scrolling fashion. I think that people hide too much behind the 1st admendment (legally) to make a buck. Where as morally, it goes unpaid.

[seighten]

nt

[Net-Tyme]

hmmm sick to his stomach over a 15 year old who was never a problem before.. sorry.. I don't agree with the icon.. Not at all. But.. I don't agree with Teachers as the all mighty either. The child never had a problem but does with with wimpy sick to my stomach teacher? I would like to pull the track record of Mr Wimpy. I would like to see his test scores and talk to former students.. you know the ones.. Not on the A B list that makes the class so easy for him.... to see what could have prompted such an attitude.. Perhaps in reality.. they both need to be punished and he truly needs to quit teaching. We have a school here for children who are kicked out for reasons such as this.. But.. I've seen elementary kids kicked for kissing a classmate after the kids set up phony weddings. We have indeed gone to far.

Edited.. Also note.. that the police can't do anything as an action was not taken. They can get him for maybe harrassment? You can say and "create" anything as long as you don't act on it. So.. I can see them "trying" to hide behind amendments.. But again.. for every action is a reaction.. What was he reacting to? A child with no priors.

[seighten]

just in case anyone was wondering about those nt posts of mine, note that i deleted my posts because they had little thought and more emotion, but net-tyme seems to make my point regardless

[Mindf!3ldzX]

its ok homie,we all have our emo moments (LerSter,lol)

[seighten]

lol, yeah

i basically said that teachers can go fuck themselves because of a recent court case which involved some teachers getting high from pot muffins as a prank. they thought they were going to die and bla bla bla, you know how people can exaggerate

"my heart was racing! it was just horrible, i couldnt control myself! i thought i was seriously going to die!"

of course not all teachers are like this. i would have to generalize (which i dont like to do) if i want to achieve that conclusion

[spooker]

i thought i was going to die from weed once. me and my bud smoked 9 bowls, in a hottub. i went blind

[Grim]

Well the problem starts here:

"His parents sued, claiming that the icon was protected by the First Amendment's guarantee of freedom of speech, that the school district failed to train staff in proper threat assessment and that the school board violated state law in not following proper procedures."

Wrong is wrong no matter who you are. The icon was wrong. The child should be shot... well, maybe not shot, but disciplined.

It doesn't surprise me what laywers will actually take to get a few bucks.

As far as the teacher goes... I think he was laying it on pretty thick. He says he was scared and actually left teaching? I can see the concern over something like this but it's not life changing. Maybe the teacher needs to do something less stressful like gardening.

[foq]

Gardening can be stressful.

[Net-Tyme]

I'm sueing the next damn snake that jumps out at me while I'm picking my tomato's damnit!!

[foq]

What will you se him for, his leftover skins?

[seighten]

"A student at Weedsport Middle School sues after being suspended for a semester for having an allegedly "threatening" instant-message icon on his home computer."

i think everyone here is overreacting. this is probably just a statement of how someone feels about a certain teacher for whatever reason (and everyone knows there are nasty teachers out there)

personally i think we are too afraid and insecure as a society, quick to jump the gun and punish that which we do not understand (as evidenced by the posts in this thread)

as for shooting the kid... now thats just wrong

[The Goat Avenger]

Sup all, I'm new here.

In my opinion this circumstance was handled very poorly on the schools part, perceived threat or not. Just becuase a couple of kids went gun crazy in a school in colombine doesn't mean every student in america is potentialy packin heat ready to blow off unsuspecting teachers heads.

First of all, this was an indirect threat as it was done outside of the classroom. Remeber, they wouldn't have even known unless some one "tipped" them off. So it would seem quite obvious the kid didn't think such a thing would have been such a big deal.

Second of all, if this truely was a perceived as a threat the next step should have been to find out what level of a threat, if it's serious or just a bad joke. The teacher claims he was scared for his and his families lively hood. Even if this be true it was unneccessary and could have been avoided.

The moment this "icon" was "tipped off" to the school, action should have been taken immediatly (intelligent thought out action). The school's principle after being notified should have set up a meeting with the kid, his parents, the teacher, and a cop.

If such a meeting had been taken place the issue could have been resolved much more efficiantly. The teacher would have a chance to display his concern and find out whether this is a true threat. The kid would have had a chance to explain. As i'm sure this was merely an over exagerated expression of not liking a teacher. Kids have not liked certain teachers since teachers have been around.

In conclusion, if such a meeting had taken place the kid would have had a chance to explain it was not a threat, and apologize. The teacher would no longer have to feel threatened, and the problem of "the threat" would be resolved.

Perhaps a certain form of punishment may still have been neccessary to let him know such things arn't to be taken lightly, but not so much as to ban him from school for half a year and screwing up his education.

I mean for christs sake. A person could kill a teacher with a pencil if they wanted to, but when we see a crappy 50 pixil by 50 pixil icon with a headshot picture we freak. Why not just quit teaching alltogether becuz the job obviosly has such a high mortality rate.(that was sarchastic incase u didn't get it.)

And Lastly...the columbine kids...didn't make little AIM icons telling everyone they were gunna fuckin go to school with guns and kill people. People who want to kill people go and fucking kill them...they don't advertise their plan so much so as to have the person they wanna kill find out before they actualy get a chance to kill them, cuz then they'd get away.

So IMO, the teacher is a pussy, the kid has a bad sense of humor, and the school is just stupid.