Tyranny strikes again, or Myspace is a joke which some people dont get

[Winston Smith]

Ughh.


I'm in trouble for being in a "*)** the Academy" myspace group. Lemme back up. Myspace.com is a place where you create a profile more or less reflecting you, replete with pictures and stuff, and you can join groups. The Academy is a smaller school that shares the same campus as mine, essentially adding 90 freshmen. There is apparently some tension between the Academy and my school, because the Academy was just started and some feel it as to be foisted upon School of the Arts (my school).

These are both public school.

I joined this group on a lark, not because I feel any antagonism toward the Academy students. In fact, I kind of like them better than SOTA freshmen. I dated a girl from the Academy for a while.

Well.

I got yelled at and punished for being in this group along with 35 other students on friday, and the starter of it got suspended. I have to do community service and am on graduation warning, aka, they are keeping a closer watch on me.

I'm kinda pissed. You can't even access myspace at school. The principal has overstepped his bounds.

So I made this open letter in hopes that many of my peers would sign it:

"We, the undersigned, have recently been involved with a myspace group that was defaming and slandering the institution of the School of the Arts Academy. For this we make no excuse. We hereby admit that this was wrong, and we are prepared to make amends in our own fashion. We in hindsight find our actions wrong and our vitriol unfounded.

However, we find Mr. Harris and the SOTA Administration's response choleric, authoritarian, and more focused on retribution than resolution. We are horrified that opinions we express in our privacy of our own homes can be punished by the Mr. Harris and the school. Even though the group was centered around school, we still find it strongly objectionable that opinions can be punished. We are sure that every single person reading this has said something regarding School of the Arts/The Academy that they wouldn't want repeated.

We are being scapegoated. Mr. Harris is trying to make us his whipping boys and girls to show that he is doing something about this supposed SOTA/Academy tension.

We will not be scapegoated. We will not be whipping boys and girls. We have made a mistake in our personal lives and we are willing to make amends for it. However, we are set firmly against the overstep of bounds that has clearly happened. We don't find any difference between an anti-academy myspace.com group and any another opinion expressed on line.

We are deeply disturbed that San Francisco Unified School District politics could pervade even our personal lives, and the Principal of our school could place political goals above real conflict resolution.

We were not warned that excercising free speech outside of school would bring harm to us.

We beleive Mr. Harris' actions to be a scapegoating attempt at conflict resolution that falls short of helping anyone, but certainly oversteps his authority. It also makes us question which other personal opinions held off campus will be punished if this is not seen as what it is: A farce.

A simple apology will suffice.

SIGNED:
THOSE WHO WERE INVOLVED IN THE MYSPACE.COM GROUP:




OTHERS WHO SUPPORT THOSE WHO WERE INVOLVED IN THE MYSPACE.COM GROUP:"

Obviously a rough draft. Opinons? Suggestions? Ideas for distribution?

[Fjolnirsson]

A few typos, but other than that, well writen, IMO.
Personally, I'd be on the phone with the ACLU. Don't know if it would help, but I'd do it.

[SalukiFan]

Winston,
  I feel for you - it sounds like the school has really overstepped its boundaries to be punishing students' free speech.

There have been a couple of court decisions made about this very issue:
Students' free-speech rights extend to the Internet
Student gets $117,500 in website free speech case

Here is a recent ACLU action on this issue of criticizing a school on the internet:
ACLU of Ohio Urges School to Rescind Punishment for Student Who Criticized School in Off-Campus Postings

Nothing freaks out school administrators more than the possibility of a lawsuit, especially when a precedent has been set and it looks like they would lose.  I agree 100% with Fjolnirsson, here's the contact info if you want to contact your local ACLU (am I right in thinking you're in Northern California?):

ACLU of Northern California
Executive Director: Dorothy M. Ehrlich
1663 Mission Street, Suite 460
San Francisco, CA 94103
Phone: 415-621-2493

If you want to try to resolve it yourself, you could always just print off the court decisions above and show them to the administrators.  If they don't respond though, I would recommend a call to the ACLU.  Good luck in getting this resolved.

Regards,

SalukiFan

[jefnvk]

"We, the undersigned, have recently been involved with a myspace group that was defaming and slandering the institution of the School of the Arts Academy. For this we make no excuse. We hereby admit that this was wrong, and we are prepared to make amends in our own fashion. We in hindsight find our actions wrong and our vitriol unfounded.

Personally, I wouldn't include that.  I wouldn't be ashamed of some grudge match I got into on the internet with another school.

[Felonious Monk/Fignozzle]

Revise, revise revise.

You start out in a couple of directions that sound fair, balanced, and focused on facts.
You wander a couple of times into the "pompous teenager demanding vindication" realm.

Make your point objectively.  Refer to the facts.  MAKE SURE you don't sound like YOU are seeking retribution instead of resolution.

If you are being punished for participating in something that you can't access from school, then it is not the jurisdiction of the school to deal with it, beyond a polite request on their part for you to cease and desist.

Give 'em heck, buddy.  We're with ya!

[Standing Wolf]

Personally, I wouldn't include that.  I wouldn't be ashamed of some grudge match I got into on the internet with another school.

I probably would feel ashamed if I were to get involved in a grudge match with a schoolbut so what?

Your administrator has violated your First Amendment civil rights. If someone had done that to me, I'd feel morally obliged, both for my own sake and that of other students, to take the administrator to court for very serious quantities of money. Until it actually adversely affects their budgets, schools will continue to infringe students' civil rights with impunity.

Fight back and fight hard, friend!

[Winston Smith]

Where does it go into retributory teenager realm? I need specific help reediting.

PS: I sent off an email to a lawyer named Kurt Opsahl at http://www.eff.org/, the electronic frontier foundation.

We'll see what his says.

[Winston Smith]

I'm the anchor for our closed circuit little news program.

At 1050 I have a meeting with Mr. Harris, my coanchor for the morning update, and the teacher who produces it. I'm probably gonna get fired. I'm not terribly worried about that, I'm probably just going to get my mouth shut about all this I'm planning to unleash, and smile and nod.


Let them wonder.


PS. Me and the lawyer are getting along just fine.

[Ektarr Dragonwycke]

Contact Bill O'Reilly.  OReilly@foxnews.com.  He Loves this kind of stuff and he'll stick up for you if he feels you've been offended.

[charby]

Winston

I would cease with anything else posted in an public forum until it is settled. The administration at your school found your myspace.com group, they could find this too. On a lighter side I wish you luck sticking it to the man!

Charby

[grampster]

Somehow I seem to think that school is a place that is NOT supposed to be like the real world.  The object of school, imho, is twofold.  To teach and to learn.  It is in someways a necessary vacuum.  Teaching sometimes involves behavior that may not be accepted well in the world.  Discipline is a part of that.  Discipline may not only be perceived to be unfair, but is unfair in reality.   But the object is to teach and to learn.  We learn and teach by observation, participation, assimilation, rote, effort, acceptance, example.

Sometimes the education comes from participation in activities that cause reactionary responses.  But there is an education in that we learn about fairness or balance, or the lack of it.  Sometimes that lesson is hard to live with or is distasteful.  Education is learning about cause and effect.  It is not easy to swallow a humbling and public spanking.  But that kind of learning is a lesson that is not soon forgotten.  It can be extremely valuable.

Perhaps as the recipient of perceived retribution in lieu of resolution is a life lesson that may make you a better person as you see the difference because you have tasted it.  That may make you the better person for it.

I'm not saying that this case is an example of the need to swallow one's pride and taking the medicine.  I'm only suggesting that in doing what you need to do should be done in the spirit of learning and teaching.  You may hold onto your passion, but examine the situation dispassionately.

[Strings]

Sorry, but no school has the right to decide what happens away from school. Not in my home, or during my free time either not on campus or attending a school function.

 What's next: detnetion/suspension for violating the dress code on weekends?

[Winston Smith]

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cacodes/edc/48950.html
EDUCATION CODE SECTION 48950

"48950. (a) School districts operating one or more high schools and
private secondary schools shall not make or enforce any rule
subjecting any high school pupil to disciplinary sanctions solely on
the basis of conduct that is speech or other communication that, when
engaged in outside of the campus, is protected from governmental
restriction by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution
or Section 2 of Article 1 of the California Constitution.
(b) Any pupil enrolled in a school that has made or enforced any
rule in violation of subdivision (a) may commence a civil action to
obtain appropriate injunctive and declaratory relief as determined by
the court. Upon motion, a court may award attorney's fees to a
prevailing plaintiff in a civil action pursuant to this section.
(c) This section does not apply to any private secondary school
that is controlled by a religious organization, to the extent that
the application of this section would not be consistent with the
religious tenets of the organization.
(d) Nothing in this section prohibits the imposition of discipline
for harassment, threats, or intimidation, unless constitutionally
protected.
(e) Nothing in this section shall be construed to supersede, or
otherwise limit or modify, the provisions of Section 48907.
(f) The Legislature finds and declares that free speech rights are
subject to reasonable time, place, and manner regulations."

Question is.... what is constitutionally protect as per section d.

Help me out El Tejon, or other lawyers.

[Stand_watie]

Question is.... what is constitutionally protect as per section d

Not a lawyer, but my two cents -Regarding harassment and threats, you may want to look to California statute. Anything not specifically illegal is probably going to be 'constitutionally protected'.

Threats are fairly easy to rule of thumb define - "I'm going to beat up Joe Smith tomorrow after school", etc. Harassment is probably going to be you contacting them - not something you put on a website - if you're calling them, im'ing them, or emailing them it could be harassment.

[Felonious Monk/Fignozzle]

Winston--
What happened?

[HForrest]

I'd leave out the part stating that you "made a mistake". You're not apologizing for anything, you're the one who has been wronged.

[Winston Smith]

Long story short, I won.

All punishment has been ceased... suspensions are going in a closed file that colleges don't see and is destroyed after 5 years.

Today, I had a brief but telling interaction with Mr. Harris. We are on good terms again, so I was joking around.

Me: You know, that reporter's here, I wish he would interview me.

Him (although absentmindedly): Well, there's some things you can't say until you graduate.

Me: Actually, I can say anything I want. I thought we cleared this up.

Him: (pause) Uhh, yeah, you're right. But there some things I would prefer you didn't say.

Me: I can respect that.


Owned.

[Strings]

Congrats Winston. And good job on taking the high road when you had won!

[Felonious Monk/Fignozzle]

Well done, Kid!  
You showed alot of cojones in fighting it, and alot of restraint by winning graciously.

Please take this lesson with you into your future endeavors.  If you do that, you'll make a big impact on the world.