Court Draws Line at Student Calling School Officials Feminine Hygiene Products
Filed under: In The News
Courts rule student did not have right to call administrators "douche bags." Credit: Getty Images
Just kidding. Those guys called each other names that would make a rapper blush. Thomas Jefferson excused John Adams of being, uh, transgendered while Benjamin Franklin was called a "whoremonger" so often he could have had the word copyrighted and put on T-shirts.
Of course, the Founding Fathers were not adolescent girls. (No matter what Jefferson said about Adams.)
The U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan feels that's an important distinction. The court upheld a decision April 25 against Avery Doninger, ruling she did not have a constitutional right to call administrators at her high school "douche bags" without consequences.
The New York Daily News reports Doninger, 20, attends college in Connecticut these days, but in 2007, she was a student at Lewis S. Mills High School in in Burlington, Conn., with her own blog.
When school officials refused to allow Jamfest, a battle of the bands, in the school cafeteria, Doninger expressed her displeasure on her personal blog. "Jamfest is canceled due to the douche bags in central office," she blogged.
School officials called that conduct "unbecoming of a class officer" and refused to let her run for senior class secretary. She argued their decision violated her First Amendment rights.
The three-judge panel disagrees, stating Doninger clearly wasn't interested ! in worki ng and playing well with others as a student body officer.
"It was not unreasonable for [Principal Karissa] Niehoff to conclude that Doninger, by posting an incendiary blog post in the midst of an ongoing school controversy, had demonstrated her unwillingness to properly carry out this role," Judge Debra Ann Livingston wrote in a 37-page opinion for the majority.
Livingston said school officials are not immune from "First Amendment scrutiny."
Nonetheless, she added, "Doninger's behavior was potentially disruptive of student government functions ... and that Doninger was not free to engage in such behavior while serving as a class representative -- a representative charged with working with these very same officials to carry out her responsibilities."
The Daily News reports Doninger and her attorney plan to appeal the decision.
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