I agree with the school administrators that extracurricular activities should be a privilege and not a right. However, I don't think that this student did anything at all to loose that privilege.
Posted on 07/17/2007 4:32:20 AM PDT by CT-Freeper
BURLINGTON — Avery Doninger was planning a battle of the bands. What transpired instead has been a war with her school district.
Doninger, a 16-year-old Lewis S. Mills High School student, and her mother on Monday requested an injunction in New Britain Superior Court against Region 10 over what they claim is unfair punishment for the teenager's use of a derogatory term to describe school staff on her Internet journal.
According to the Doninger family, school administrators in April prohibited the girl from seeking a fourth term as secretary of the Class of 2008 after discovering the blog entry. The Doningers are seeking to have the class election in which the girl wasn't allowed to participate voided, her mother, Lauren Doninger, said.
A full-fledged lawsuit is in the works based on claims outlined in documents filed in court on Monday which allege the 2,843-student, K-12 district has violated Avery Doninger's First Amendment right to free speech by reprimanding her for the journal entry.
"Connecticut school officials have no legal authority ... to punish students for private, online publishings that do not utilize school resources and do not occur on school grounds," the family's attorney, Jon L. Schoenhorn of Hartford, said in a statement late Sunday.
In an entry on her blog on a Web site called LiveJournal on April 24, Avery Doninger referred to the K-12 district's administrators as "douche bags."
The comment was made after she and other student council members sparred with school officials over the scheduling of an on-campus battle of the bands they were planning.
"I wrote it when I was really frustrated and I know it was wrong," said Avery Doninger, who had served as class secretary since her freshman year at Mills.
She didn't expect her comment would be seen by more than a few friends, noting "I thought the blog was private."
Between then and May 17, a computer printout of the girl's blog found its way to Mills Principal Karissa Niehoff, who was offended by it, the Doningers said.
Avery Doninger was set to run again for class secretary in the school's May 25 election, but Niehoff pulled the plug on the campaign to reprimand the girl, the court documents claim.
Avery Doninger said she had offered to erase the journal entry and apologized to both Niehoff and Superintendent of Schools Paula Schwartz. But to no avail.
"Miss Niehoff said it wasn't good citizenship or leadership to say what I said," Avery Doninger said. "I still wanted to run, but she kept my name off the ballot."
Lauren Doninger said the reprimand is unfair because it lasts an entire year, taints her daughter's college resume and isn't a school-wide standard punishment.
The Doningers allege district leaders don't hold all students accountable for the content of their Web sites and have targeted only the Burlington girl.
"I could find hundreds of derogatory things about school on kids' Web sites. If students are going to be penalized based on what they post online, school officials should scrutinize every posting they come across," Lauren Doninger said.
Schwartz, the superintendent, said district administrators don't comment on disciplinary issues involving students.
"What I can say is that all extracurricular activities here are a privilege and not a right," Schwartz said.
A message seeking comment left at Niehoff's office was not returned on Monday.
While the family may not seek monetary damages other than coverage of attorney's fees, Lauren Doninger said, she and her daughter hope the upcoming lawsuit will change the way the district handles free speech and force administrators to standardize its disciplinary policies.
"Punishments need to be uniform," Lauren Doninger said.
"It's easy to dismiss this as a kid who got in trouble and is complaining about it, but it's not that. It's about setting bad precedent for everyone else."
I agree with the school administrators that extracurricular activities should be a privilege and not a right. However, I don't think that this student did anything at all to loose that privilege.
Most likely ratted out by one of her "friends".
or even more likely one of her opponents.
Compare Bush to Hitler till the cows come home but lay off the left-wing teachers and administrators.
Ha! Sure you did, Avery.
No school resouces used in blog and they (the school) still think that they have the right to control it?
Yep, this one needs to be fought.
I agree, the staff are douche bags.
But then that’s my opinion of 99.9% of everyone who works for any school in any district I’ve ever been in.
Not a one of them has ever done anything to convince me otherwise.
Next case.
Thanks for ping.
Principals email neihoff@@region10ct.org
Post #11 was meant for you.
Once you put something on the Net, you lose control over it, and it effectively becomes immortal. All it takes is somebody forwarding a copy/paste of your supposedly "private" communication to friends, who then forward to other people, and it eventually winds up in the hands of somebody who does not like you
Could have been worse; she could have called them douche-effluent brained tyrants.
Niehoff, who has douched washed her brain (in one ear; out the other) so much that she can't do anything with it, needs to go back to high school, and retake civics...IF they still teach it, let alone require it...and learn that she does not have a right to not be offended 24/7.
this is what passes for intelligent discourse these days. she probably thought she was poignant.
that said, I am unsure as to whether what she said was actionable, I mean if the admin are so bad, why fight to work with them?
but can you blame them for not wanting to put up with her?
And, another moron has discovered that when you put something on the Internet, it is NOT private.
Nonetheless, I agree that the school has overstepped its authority and abriged her First Amendment rights. Her disagreement with the school (and the school's attempt to prevent her from keeping the same school office) are clearly symbolic of the rot and lack of intelligence being pursued in government schools today.
I hope she wins her case. More school administrators need to be exposed for their totalitarian, and idiotic policies and more parents need to get their kids out of our atrocious government schools for the benefit of their children.
"Connecticut school officials have no legal authority ... to punish students for private, online publishings that do not utilize school resources and do not occur on school grounds," the family's attorney, Jon L. Schoenhorn of Hartford, said in a statement late Sunday.This used to be considered a fundamental, if not obvious, limitation on the power of the schools. This attempt to usurp it is a dangerous manifestation of the "village" mentality, particularly when one considers the cryptosocialist leanings of much of the public educational establishment.
-Eric
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.