IP: ACLU Defends Student Suspended for Web Site

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

I for one would be happy to mail a contribution to help the ACLU.


Dave


Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1998 10:42:13 EDT
From: Emilyaclu () aol com
Subject: ACLU Defends Student Suspended for Web Site


ACLU of Missouri Sues School For Suspending Student Who Created Personal
Website 


Contact: Deborah Jacobs, Executive Director, ACLU of Eastern Missouri
ph. (314) 361-2111/(314) 905-0258 (pager)


The American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri filed suit in federal
court today against Woodland R-IV School District for violating sixteen-year-
old Brandon Beussink's First Amendment right to free speech when it suspended
him for creating a personal web page that criticized his school. 


Last February, Brandon, then a junior at Woodland High School in Marble Hill,
Missouri, created a home page with his sister one weekend on his family's home
computer. Among other things, the web page poked fun at the high school's
official Web Site and criticized how teachers and administrators treated
students. It encouraged visitors to e-mail school administrators and complain
about the quality of the school's Web site.  Marble Hill is a small town
located about 30 miles west of Cape Girardeau. 


School administrators responded to Brandon's comments with a lesson in
censorship. They suspended him for ten days, and then failed him for the
entire semester because of those absences.  Now, as the rest of his class
prepares to graduate next spring, Brandon must re-earn all his credits from
last semester, even though he completed all his classes and passed all his
finals - all because he spoke out about problems at his school. He received no
notice, and administrators denied his request to appeal the punishment, even
though he removed the Web site the same day school administrators complained. 


"I think that the school should practice what it teaches," said Beussink.  "We
study history and we study the Constitution, but the school doesn't seem to
think that it applies to them." 


"The law is clear that schools cannot interfere with what students say on
their own time outside of school," said Deborah Jacobs, Executive Director of
the ACLU of Eastern Missouri.  "This includes the Internet. Brandon's comments
on the Internet are protected just as they would be had he made them in an
underground newspaper, at the park, on a street corner or at the mall."


"Observing and making comments about how government functions is what free
speech is all about," she added.  "Students should be encouraged to express
themselves in this manner so that they grow into thoughtful, contributing
adult citizens." 


Today's case is just one of many the ACLU has handled nationwide challenging
discipline that resulted from students expressing their thoughts on the
Internet. Earlier this year, an Ohio student was awarded $30,000 after his
school district suspended him for posting a Web site that insulted his band
teacher. 


The ACLU's lawsuit seeks to have the suspension removed from Brandon's record,
restore his status as a senior, and to let him make up the work he missed. 


###












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