Free Speech? Not so much suspened over Poem

[Chowder Head]

A junior foot ball player was given an assignment in English class to write poem about a something he was passiant about. He wrote apoem about how he felt ablout the culture of the football team. He was suspended for bulling. :o

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/highschoo ... 05586.html

http://fox8.com/2013/10/22/high-school- ... over-poem/

No names were ever mentioned. Other than this is no where near bulling how or why did he get 4 days. As a teacher I have seen kids get a day or two for fighting maybe bulling never.

[RosyDaisy]

This kid now has a target on his back. I feel so sorry for him.

[Emkay]

Oh, Ohio High School football. When I saw it was Ohio, i thought it might be Massilon- to say they're BIG on football is an understatement. But Rittman? The article said they had a 1-7 season. This is just small-town don't-insult-the-powers-that-be bullshit.

[Nothing2CHere]

Update, the suspension has been overturned: http://fox8.com/2013/10/24/school-offic ... verturned/

But like RosyDaisy said, he's probably got a target on his back now.

And in a "It's a small world after all" moment, I know someone who lives in Rittman, and out of curiosity just checked their child's facebook page. Child is a friend with the boy in this article, same class, but doesn't have any commentary about this situation.

[2xx1xy1JD]

The penalty seems really over-the-top, and I'm glad it was overturned.

OTOH, I can understand the school stepping in if one student is standing up and blatantly insulting another student in front of the entire class.

[Ariel]

Did he read it aloud in class?

If yes, I would suggest a sit down with a guidance counselor or maybe some conflict resolution counseling. If not, then a quiet word from the teacher after class-or the teacher speaks to another teacher that has a better relationship with the student.

This really shouldn't have gone to a punishment scenario at all unless the kids spray painted it onto a fucking locker or something.

[Savoring Samsara]

Did he read it aloud in class?

If yes, I would suggest a sit down with a guidance counselor or maybe some conflict resolution counseling. If not, then a quiet word from the teacher after class-or the teacher speaks to another teacher that has a better relationship with the student.

This really shouldn't have gone to a punishment scenario at all unless the kids spray painted it onto a fucking locker or something.

He did read it aloud, but the assignment was to write a poem about something that makes you angry. So, yeah, he was suspended for fulfilling the assignment his teacher gave him.

[louisa05]

He did read it aloud, but the assignment was to write a poem about something that makes you angry. So, yeah, he was suspended for fulfilling the assignment his teacher gave him.

"Passionate" does not mean "angry". So, no, that was not the assignment.

I taught high school English for 16 years. I had more than one incident where students tried to use a creative writing assignment to slam other students. Usually, there was a history of issues between the students in question. When I was less experienced, I didn't know that "don't write nasty things about your classmates" was a necessary instruction. Later, I knew that and always told the kids that a class assignment was not the best place to handle those feelings and it would not be allowed. Some kids would just not give up and would turn in something like this anyway. They were always required to do the assignment over again and not allowed to share the derogatory piece in class. There was only one incident where students were punished for such writing and that was because three boys coordinated with each other to write about a classmate and then taped the pieces to the other student's locker for the whole school to see. Those actions were part of a long string of harassing behaviors that the three boys had directed to the other student who eventually left the school because he could not take it.

I don't think it is a violation of free speech because courts have consistently ruled that speech that disrupts the learning environment can be limited by schools. Writing a derogatory piece about a classmate and reading it in class disrupts the learning environment.

I also think we have to be careful about making a judgment on cases like this because we don't know what else happened prior. This may not have been the first inappropriate action directed at the other student by this young man.