Sacramento High School Student Suspended For Status Update, ACLU Claims Freedom Of Speech Violation

When Donny Dunlap was assigned three times the usual amount of homework in his 10th-grade biology class, he logged on Facebook to vent.

Once school officials found out, however, they de-friended him the way it's done off-line: with a one-day suspension from class.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that after administrators at Mesa Verde High in Sacramento doled out discipline, the American Civil Liberties Union wrote a letter claiming the student's First Amendment rights were violated. Soon afterward, the school removed the suspension from Dunlap's record.

The Chronicle reports that his status update described the teacher as a "fat ass who should stop eating fast food, and is a douche bag."

With no "dislike" button available, the school instead claimed Dunlap was cyber-bullying.

The ACLU sent a letter to Mesa Verde High School, defending the student's actions. They stated what the Education Code defines as discriminatory or defamatory acts and told the school that Dunlap's statement did not qualify. The letter said:

"Because Donny's Facebook posting posed no actual or threat of substantial and material disruption, it was protected speech for which Donny may not be disciplined."

Kristina Dunlap, Donny's mother, told California Watch that she didn't agree with her son's behavior, but she felt that the school-sanctioned suspension wasn't appropriate.

"We never encourage him to speak of any authority figures like that. That's not right. We don't condone that. But that's our business to handle at home. I can ground him for a month, and he can learn his lesson."

Sacramento School District spokesman Trent Allen told California Watch that school officials are working "to clarify the threshold required for suspension and avoid similar issues in the future."

Comments

[Moskva81]

12:26 PM on 02/04/2011

Can the teacher make a status update that calls the student stupid? The student's parents must be proud.

[AWeimer]

05:54 PM on 02/03/2011

It's a constitutional right to say your teacher is fat. 1st amendment. He should not be punished, however the teacher can sue for defamation of character.

[pavementends42]

01:18 PM on 02/03/2011

He learned something valuable. Anyone should be free to critique the actions of authority figures in what should be a neutral or friendly space without fear of punishment or undue discrimination. This is the future: internet privacy. With no reasonable expectation of privacy, whether someone snitched or not, who's to say an organization couldn't forcibly gain information from your online bank account or medical records and exploit them to 'correct' your actions. Those online resources have little more security than the authentication used by Facebook. Being a teacher or school administrator does not give carte blanche access to the lives of children or their activities outside of the classroom. Should a student be punished for something like this in a classroom? Absolutely. This is no different than the school administrators in PA who punished a student for actions outside the school based solely on images captured by a school computer in the student's home, without his or the parents' knowledge or consent. It's a slippery slope and we all need to provide some traction. Don't be so quick to judge the actions of a young student who did nothing but voice an opinion outside of school (I was a straight-A student and a timid teenager and even I voiced some not-so-nice opinions of my teachers, some of which were most definitely deserved). To me, if this were a criminal court and I were a judge, I would rule the evidence inadmissible due to unlawful search and seizure.

[Lisa Shields]

08:03 AM on 02/03/2011

There is such a thing as "common sense", and while you may have the "right" to free speech, there are consequences to its casual use.

Observe...this boy has learned nothing.
He can now assume that he can boldly state his every opinion, and the ACLU will protect him.

Neato.
UNTIL he enters the job market.
Or until he applies for college.
Or...fill in the blanks.

He used a social medium to his detriment...and as we were recently reminded, the Internet is forever...and can follow you long after you left "stupid" for a new address.

The ACLU could better use its time...say protecting citizens who are being exploited financially due to low credit scores? But no....once again they squander their assets on a trifle. Free speech my wide backside...this kid is cooked.

[Valerie Buchanan]

08:55 PM on 02/02/2011

I've read a lot of the comments on here and most seem to be upset about the fact that this kid said something that may or may not have been appropriate about his teacher. All of that can be well understood from almost any angle. However, my problem with this whole thing is that if this kid has a Facebook page and his parents did not have any control over setting up the privacy settings, then there in lies a big part of the problem. The second part of this problem is the other student who went and repeated what was written there, otherwise nobody would have known about it. It is obvious to me that this kid would not have this particular teacher listed as a friend on Facebook That Facebook page is the same as if you were sitting around the table in the lunch room talking with your friends. There is a "Reasonable expectation of Privacy" with regards to this sort of things. You should be able to vent, complain or whatever among friends without worrying that it is going to be repeated somwhere.

[reapersaurus]

04:21 PM on 02/02/2011

This is yet another example of Sacramento schools being too big for their britches.

The teachers in the San Juan Unified school district have exceptional union protections and benefits, and are in the habit of pushing those protections on to students AND parents to stifle any inquiry or expression they dislike.

I'm glad to see the ACLU stood up for this kid, just to show the drunk-on-power district that "No - you are NOT the arbiters of reality, after all."

[Jack Davies]

04:56 PM on 02/02/2011

More distrubingly, this is yet another example of FB being used as a tool of oppression.

Sure, it was sorta silly and all worked out in the end, but my point is, if I can't say what I want in a supposed private forum without fear of being suspended or fired, what is the point?

[bessielil]

04:05 PM on 02/02/2011

Now might be a good time to remind teachers that when they are out in public, perhaps out for lunch with colleagues during a professional development day, that it is NOT OK to talk about students by name, by information that would reveal who the student is, and certainly not to complain and name call about what so and so did during 5th period. One I remember referred to our students as 'little pukes.' I used to cringe at my colleagues and try to change the subject--not easy when teachers get on a story telling roll.

[Nix 007]

01:13 PM on 02/02/2011

Damn straight! His action wasn't appropriate but it was unlawful for the school to step in. Too often we're blurring the boundaries between school and home, not to mention church and state, or home and government.

[Michael Morrison]

01:25 AM on 02/02/2011

Evidently, the school feels that it has the power to trump civil rights far beyond its campus.

Where, exactly, does the school's ability to impose punishment, without due process, end?

The ACLU and I don't always see eye-to-eye, but in this case, I thank them.

[SaraCE]

09:41 PM on 02/01/2011

Ok, if you are an adult and your sense of well being is dependent on what some kid says about you, you've got problems. I've been called everything under the sun--fat being among the nicer comments--to my face by students and I really don't care.

[Mountain Momma]

10:30 PM on 02/01/2011

Yeah, I pretty much know every physical and character flaw I have because past students were kind enough to point them all out to be. Oh well.

[saskatoonie]

11:49 PM on 02/01/2011

Where are the parents of these children.....the world is going to he!!

[nnaylime]

09:27 PM on 02/01/2011

There's not enough information here for me to form an opinion . . . with nothing more to go on, it's easy to assume the school overstepped, BUT, the questions I have are what level of "protection" was this post under (private, friends-only, or public) and whether the teacher was "tagged" (was she also on Facebook and did he link to her?) in the post or otherwise identified. If the post was limited to only his friends and she wasn't identified, then yes, I think the school overstepped and shouldn't prohibit this kid from blowing off steam (however crassly); if, however, the post was public and/or the teacher was linked/identified, then I wonder whether he wasn't trying to incite a response, which he got.

[NoTownKasper]

09:31 PM on 02/01/2011

Doesn't matter.

The teachers feelings are not protected under any amendment and people need to learn this. Freedom of speech encompasses insults too, no matter how much people don't like it. The kid had every right to post whatever he wants as long as it didn't contain a -DIRECT- threat. If the teacher didn't like it...wtf was he doing reading the kid's page to begin with? When schools start trying to limit what their students can say and do, even outside of school jurisdiction, they deserve to be slapped for it.

[ashlayne]

11:08 PM on 02/01/2011

On the same note, I am generally of the opinion that if the student had used any bigoted words -- of which there were none according to this article -- then disciplinary action would be the school's right.

[NoTownKasper]

08:22 PM on 02/01/2011

"Sticks and Stones may break my bones,
But words will never hurt me."

Anyone else remember this little saying? I'm so damn sick of people whining "They hurt my feelings when they called me fat! Just because I'm 500+lbs with an attitude problem doesn't give anyone the right to exercise their freedom of speech and say something about it!"

Grow a thicker skin people. Your feelings aren't protected under any amendment. Freedom of speech however, is.

As for the argument: "What if he was making fun of the teachers sexual orientation or race instead of his weight." well...guess what? That's also protected under the first amendment. You do NOT get to pick and choose when and where to apply the constitution.

[Max Vincent]

11:48 AM on 02/02/2011

Not true; hate speech is NOT protected under any amendment.

[TeeSC]

01:15 PM on 02/02/2011

I would agree but this isn't hate speech.  It was disrespectful to be sure but hardly hate speech.  And I'll tell you something else.  Anyone who thinks that the TEACHERS themselves don't have a lot to say about their students is naive.  I've been to some teachers conventions (well, only to party with my sister) and the things they say about their students would curl your toes.

[mallowtree]

08:10 PM on 02/01/2011

Is this any different than the guy who posted the stuff about the female college students? People need to be aware of how their words impact others on FB, Twitter, or any other social media. I say milk the cyber bullying card as much as you can to stop this kind of rude behavior from continuing.

[twiddle723]

08:08 PM on 02/01/2011

Is nothing sacrosanct anymore?

[blindjester]

08:02 PM on 02/01/2011

As a high school teacher, I have fairly strict discipline. I have to. And I need the school to back me up, which I'm glad (in a way) they have done for this teacher.

But I'm not happy even checking what students post on facebook, let alone suspending them for it.

I've had kids call me stuff, and honestly, it will make you mad. It also makes it tough to teach that kid, and anybody that kid influences. But I can't see taking official school action for an internet posting.

I can completely see calling in the parents and having a talk, though. I'd definitely do that.

[TeeSC]

01:16 PM on 02/02/2011

Nicely said... very well put.  I couldn't agree with you more or add anything to it.