Bullying ruled to be protected free speech

Damn. There's enough outrage today that I'm almost willing to blog for free. But this is a quality blog, and blogging is part of my job.

Last year, an 8th-grader in California reported that a gang of schoolmates had starred in a video on YouTube attacking her. The school suspended for 2 days the girl who posted the video.

This was probably the first time the harasser was ever disciplined for anything in her whole life. Anyone who'd upload a video to YouPube harassing a schoolmate clearly doesn't know how to live in society - which has rules and standards.

What did the harasser do upon being suspended? Why, she sued, citing her True Free Speach Now (tm). Seriously, she thought her First Amendment rights were violated.

Um, no. Posting the video on YouTube actually had a connection to school - so the school had a right to punish her. All the students in the video should have been expelled, in fact. Schools have been penalizing students more and more for off-campus conduct that has nothing to do with school, so why can't they discipline those whose misbehavior is school-related?

Outrageously, a federal judge actually ruled in the harasser's favor when she claimed harassment was free speech. (The judge was a Reagan appointee, incidentally.)

We can't distribute The Last Word on a public university campus, but some spoiled baby can post videos harassing her classmates? Never before has the First Amendment been turned so squarely on its ear by courts and law enforcement than it has in the past 15 years.

Even more unbelievably, the court in this case cited Tinker v. Des Moines to arrive at its decision. Uh, what??? Tinker v. Des Moines was about schools' suppression of dissent. It had nothing to do with student harassment.

What we need to do is pass a law to bar attorneys from collecting fees when they accept cases claiming that school harassment is a "right." I guarantee you that if we do this, these spoiled brat lawsuits will stop.

(Source: http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2009/12/14/judge_rules_students_cruel_remarks_online_are_not_unconstitutional)