Geek Profiling Upheld by Appeals Court

[Eric Cordian]

The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals has just upheld the right of schools
to suspend or expel any student who speaks or writes about fictional
violence, dresses differently, has a "disturbing" background, or "fits the
profile" of a "homicidal student."

The 9th circuit is supposed to be the liberal one, right?

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A Washington state school district acted
appropriately when it suspended a student for submitting a poem about a
fictitious campus mass murder, a federal appeals court ruled Friday.
   
The decision from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower
court's ruling that the high school was wrong to suspend James LaVine, a
16-year-old junior, for 17 school days in 1998.
   
LaVine submitted his poem, ''Last Words,'' to be critiqued by his English
instructor at his school about 100 miles north of Seattle. Among the
violent imagery was the phrase, ''I drew my gun and . . . Bang, Bang,
Bang-Bang. When it was all over, 28 were, dead.''
   
In ordering the suspension, the school district had said LaVine had a
''disturbing'' background, dressed differently and ''fit the profile'' of
a homicidal student.
   
The student's attorney, Breean Beggs, said the court's decision could
chill students' First Amendment right to free speech and give educators
leverage to punish students for their ideas.
   
''I was hoping to have it made clear that students cannot be punished for
the content of their work,'' Beggs said.
   
The appeals panel said while the poem viewed by itself is protected
speech, the school district had a right to suspend LaVine on fears he may
have carried out what he had written.
   
''Parents and the public expect schools to protect their children and that
is getting more and more difficult in modern times,'' said Tyna Ek, the
lawyer for school district. ''This says that schools can act when there
are danger signals.''
   
The circuit panel noted that, in hindsight, it may not have been necessary
to expel the student -- given that it was later determined he had no
violent intentions. Still, the court said, schools need to react to the
potential for such violence.
   
LaVine, who is now 19 and graduated last year, said he didn't know why he
wrote the poem.
   
''When I write, I just get a feeling. Whatever comes out, comes out,''
LaVine said. ''There's not really any reason behind why I wrote it.''

-- 
Eric Michael Cordian 0+
O:.T:.O:. Mathematical Munitions Division
"Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be The Whole Of The Law"