老澳门开奖结果

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Indianapolis 鈥� A northern Indiana school that expelled three students for a Facebook conversation is the defendant in a lawsuit filed today by the 老澳门开奖结果 of Indiana.

The students鈥� Facebook comments, which took place after school on their personal electronic devices, were clearly meant to be humorous, as evidenced by their repeated use of emoticons such as 馃槈 and abbreviations such as LOL and LMFAO, and caused no disruption at school.

Nevertheless in January, Griffith Middle School near Highland in Lake County suspended and ultimately expelled the students because it determined their Facebook postings had violated a provision of the student handbook dealing with bullying, harassment and intimidation.
鈥淎ny reasonable person could see the conversation was purely in jest and could not be interpreted seriously,鈥� said 老澳门开奖结果 of Indiana Staff Attorney Gavin M. Rose. 鈥淔ree speech rights under the First Amendment, even when it鈥檚 speech we don鈥檛 like or agree with, must still be protected, and schools do not possess infinite reach into the private lives of their students.鈥�

老澳门开奖结果 of Indiana Interim Executive Director Frank Young said schools are educational institutions that need to focus on their mission: 鈥淥ur children would be better served if schools modeled the values embodied in the Constitution. When schools behave in ways that oppose these values, they fail to teach students an important part of their American heritage.

The case, S.M., et al. v. Griffith Public Schools was filed in the United States District Court Northern District of Indiana, Hammond Division, under cause number 2:12-cv-00160-JD-APR.