Plum officials: District won't inhibit 'constitutionally protected speech'

Trib Live ^ | 4/27/15 | Megan Guza and Karen Zapf

[P.O.E.]

Plum Borough School District administrators and borough police walked back assertions they made last week suggesting students could be arrested for “irresponsible” talk or social media postings about investigations into teacher sex abuse allegations.

“The district will not prevent or inhibit any individuals from engaging in constitutionally protected speech,” said Superintendent Timothy Glasspool in a letter the district released Monday. Glasspool did not respond to requests for comment.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania said the district's statement was “more cryptic than we would have liked,” but the group said it accepted the clarification of the issue, according to ACLU-PA legal director Witold Walczak.

The ACLU became involved when local police and high school administrators held an assembly and cautioned students against discussing the investigation publicly, telling them they could be arrested for “irresponsible” and “immature” talk, tweets, texts, emails, or posts to Facebook.

Read more: http://triblive.com/news/adminpage/8250483-74/students-police-protest#ixzz3YY6KLrW0 Follow us: @triblive on Twitter | triblive on Facebook

[P.O.E.]

Free speech for me, but not for thee.

[P.O.E.]

Ping

[MeganC]

Echoes of the Soviet Union.

[Leaning Right]

I actually think the Plum authorities were trying to do the right thing here. A student alleged an assault by a Plum teacher. And there was at least one attempt (by another teacher) to intimidate this victim.

So, as I see it, the authorities were trying to warn everyone not to use social media as a way to further intimidate the victim. But the authorities issued this warning in a clumsy way. They should have stuck to a narrow discussion of the crime of witness intimidation.

[TalBlack]

“The district will not prevent or inhibit any individuals from engaging in constitutionally protected speech,”

Notice they didn’t say “cannot”. Leftist never can.

[SkyDancer]

The Constitution reads: "The United States Constitution explicitly provides for 'the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances'" in the First Amendment.

I don't read anywhere in there that violent riots, the destruction of property is a given right in the Constitution.

[P.O.E.]

I agree. While innocent until proven guilty, teachers like that should be held to public scrutiny, to a degree. Let people talk, but let the jury decide.

[LadyBuck]

Disturbing, not clumsy, is how I would describe the information shared with students.