Student suspended for Facebook page can sue
Katherine Evans did not like her English teacher. She created a Facebook page to say so. Now the matter is in court.
MIAMI--A South Florida teenager who
The student, Katherine Evans, is seeking to have her suspension expunged from her disciplinary record. School officials suspended her for three days, saying she had been "cyberbullying" the teacher, Sarah Phelps. Evans is also seeking a "nominal fee" for what she argues was a violation of her First Amendment rights, her lawyers said, and payment of her legal fees.
The former principal, Peter Bayer, who worked at the Pembroke Pines Charter High School, had asked that the case be dismissed. But Magistrate Judge Barry Garber denied Bayer's petition and rejected his claims of qualified immunity.
Lawyers for Evans, 19, now a sophomore at the University of Florida, said that they were pleased by the ruling and that they hoped to bring the case to trial in the spring.
One of the lawyers, Maria Kayanan, associate legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, said the judge's decision had clearly extended the protection of First Amendment rights to online writings of a nonthreatening manner.
"This is an important victory both for Evans and Internet free speech," Kayanan said, "because it upholds the principle that the right to freedom of speech and expression in America does not depend on the technology used to convey opinions and ideas."
Evans would not comment on the judge's ruling. Efforts to reach Bayer or officials at the high school were unsuccessful.
Evans's suspension first came to the attention of the civil liberties union in 2007. Then a high school senior and an honor student, Evans repeatedly clashed with Phelps, her English teacher, over assignments, Evans has said.
She turned to Facebook to vent her frustration. At home on her computer, Evans created a Facebook page titled " Sarah Phelps is the worst teacher I've ever had" and invited past and current students of Phelps to post their own comments.
Some students wrote comments agreeing with Evans's criticism of Phelps. Others offered support for the teacher. After a few days, Evans took down the Facebook page.
Two months later, Evans says, she was called into the principal's office and told she was being suspended for creating the page.
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