Douchebag blog post leads to teens’ banned re-election

Posted June 6, 2008 at 07:58 PM by Christian Milsom

Section: Tech News, Web, Websites

It would appear that not even the internet is free from the ever tightening boundaries of free speech. And I am not talking about terrorism plots, or speech which ‘incites racial hatred’. Oh no. It would appear that not even calling someone a ‘douchebag’ is ‘politically correct’.

This follows the case of 16 year old Lewis Mills High School senior Avery Doninger (shown above with Mum) who, in exasperation over the schools inability to help matter overs a ‘battle of the bands’ delay, wrote on her blog that “jamfest is cancelled [SIC] due to douchebags in central office”. Apparently, according to the school, this “created a foreseeable risk of substantial disruption” and they banned her from being re-elected as a class officer. So the teenager and her mum took this to a federal district court judge who rejected their claim of an infringement into her First Amendment rights, a view which was concurred to by an appeals court.

So, if a 16 year old girl can’t express her anger on a blog, then what has the world come to? Surely it is not even that much of an insult, and nothing that a ‘polite conversation’ could not solve, and the fact that it took place out of school grounds also raises questions as to what authority a school should have. So a word of warning, if you have a blog and don’t like your boss… you know what not to do!

Via [Courant]