ACLU defends student for calling his teacher a “douchebag”

Read Time:1 Minute, 44 Second

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a “white elephant” that goes way too far sometimes when “interpreting” the constitution.  There was a time that it had a real purpose:

The U.S. Supreme Court had yet to uphold a single free speech claim when Roger Baldwin, Crystal Eastman, Albert DeSilver and others formed the ACLU in 1920. Activists languished in jail for distributing anti-war literature. State sanctioned violence against African Americans was routine. Women won the right to vote only in August of that year. Constitutional rights for lesbians and gays, bisexual and transgender people in those days were unthinkable.”

Those days are gone, replaced by the irrational nonsense that we often see today.  Here is the story from SF Weekly:

From the Sacramento suburb of Citrus Heights comes the latest tale of First Amendment issues in the digital age — this one sparked by a high school sophomore who was suspended for calling his biology teacher a “douche bag” on Facebook.

As California Watch and the San Francisco Chronicle report, 15-year-old Donny Tobolski posted a status update to his Facebook profile that said his biology teacher at Mesa Verde High was “a fat ass who should stop eating fast food, and is a douche bag.” Ah, the rapier wit of socially networked adolescence.

Alerted of this online barb, the school suspended him for cyberbullying — only to back down when the American Civil Liberties Union wrote a letter to school officials asserting that disciplining a student for exercising free speech, so long as the speech isn’t wreaking havoc with school functions, is an unconstitutional act.

The ACLU had apparently been contacted by Tobolski’s mom, who according to California Watch “was livid” and “felt the school was overreaching.” The school responded to the ACLU letter by erasing the suspension from Tobolski’s record.

To sum up: the Constitution guarantees that calling one of your teachers a “fat ass” and “douche bag” on a widely used Internet site will not get you into trouble at school. We’re guessing that this ain’t Antonin Scalia’s version of strict constructionism.

Enhanced by Zemanta

About Post Author

Professor Mike

Professor Mike is a left-leaning, dog loving, political junkie. He has written dozens of articles for Substack, Medium, Simily, and Tribel. Professor Mike has been published at Smerconish.com, among others. He is a strong proponent of the environment, and a passionate protector of animals. In addition he is a fierce anti-Trumper. Take a moment and share his work.
Happy
Happy
0 %
Sad
Sad
0 %
Excited
Excited
0 %
Sleepy
Sleepy
0 %
Angry
Angry
0 %
Surprise
Surprise
0 %
0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of

10 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
4 years ago

… [Trackback]

[…] Read More here: madmikesamerica.com/2011/02/aclu-defends-student-for-calling-his-teacher-a-douchebag/ […]

Michael John Scott
13 years ago

I think I did a poor job of expressing myself here. At first blush I felt that expending valuable resources on a case like this was demeaning to a once powerful and influential organization. I agree with you Mike that the school was very “douchebaggy.” I wonder if that word would work in Scrabble 🙂

Reply to  Michael John Scott
13 years ago

I don’t think the Scrabble dictionary considers it a real word. 😉 My yuppie sista would know as she beats the hell out of me every time we play.

Stella by Starlight
Reply to  Dusty
13 years ago

Dusty, maybe now that “douchebag” is in the Urban Dictionary, perhaps the term can be included in Scrabble now. Who knew?

douchebag: Someone who has surpassed the levels of jerk and asshole, however not yet reached f*@#!r or motherf*@#!r. Not to be confused with douche.

Rob:He kept hitting on my girlfriend at the party, he just wouldn’t leave her alone!!
Sam: God, what a douchebag.

Count me in with Lazersedge, Mother Hen, and Stimpson. What once was slander is now libel. If a kid can say “douchebag” to his friends off school premises, why can’t s/he write the word off school premises about her/his teachers without suspension? Is our society really that humorless and thin-skinned?

“Cyberbully” as defined by the Urban Dictionary and Tech Terms:

UD: Anyone online that mainly curses others out for their intrests, looks, human rights, or basically anything that doesn’t harm the public online.

TT: There are bullies and then there are cyberbullies. While bullying typically happens at school or work, cyberbullying takes place over cyberspace. This includes both Internet and cell phone communication. Like physical bullying, cyberbullying is aimed at younger people, such as children and teenagers. It may involve harassing, threatening, embarrassing, or humiliating young people online.

Some teachers–and professors–are douchebags. If the douche fits… Bravo to the ACLU. This comment is neither incendiary nor hate-filled. The douchebag school overreacted.

“Cyberbullies?” Poppycock.

Reply to  Stella by Starlight
13 years ago

Isn’t he a douchenozzle, since he is a male? 😉

Stella by Starlight
Reply to  Dusty
13 years ago

LMAO… just found your comment, Dusty. I don’t know if he’s endowed enough to deserve the name douchenozzle. And I don’t want to find out.

13 years ago

OK, the ACLU even defends the KKK when ‘their’ rights of free speech are violated. That is why I say hate speech should not be a protected speech, that would free the ACLU from defending aholes like this guy and the KKK. The ACLU can not pick and choose who they defend.

Stimpson
13 years ago

Defending people’s rights is not an outdated role. The ACLU is not obsolete for taking on cases you disagree with any more than police services are obsolete because they sometimes make arrests I disagree with.

As Mother Hen points out, the school’s response was unreasonable. There’s a wide range of sanctions that it could have imposed, many of them more reasonable than suspension. The school was very douchebaggy.

13 years ago

Sounds like the school just made the kid’s point. Suspension was way too strict for the rime. Definitely the actions of a douche bag.

lazersedge
13 years ago

Well. it is possible that he is right ], you know. This is an instance of new ground in that if you say what you think of your teacher, boss, etc. off the clock and off premises is protected or is that only where generally elected government agencies id concerned.

Previous post Labradors as accurate as colonoscopy in detecting cancer
Next post Microsoft: Security flaw in Internet Explorer affects 900 million people
10
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x