Of Midgets and Alligators
Student faces charges for comments made about teacher on MySpace:
Another kid in legal trouble for saying things about a teacher on MySpace…
A Georgia high school freshman will be in court next week after posting comments about his now-former science teacher on the Web site Myspace.com.
Alex Davis, 15, faces a misdemeanor charge of criminal defamation of character for posting comments about his science teacher Robert Muzzillo that said he wrestled alligators and midgets.
The comment, posted to a page created by a classmate in March, landed Davis in in-school suspension after the teacher reported it to administrators.
Muzzillo pressed charges in Henry County Juvenile Court and Davis has transferred from his class, his father and his attorney said.
If all he said was that Mr. Muzzillo wrestled alligators and midgets than I agree that the whole thing is being blown out of proportion. However I disagree with this quote from Alex Davis’ father Andy…
�This is clearly a violation on my son�s constitutional freedoms, I am furious, because my son�s rights were being trampled on. �
People really need to brush up on the Bill of Rights. As innocuous as the statement “he wrestles alligators and midgets” is if the statement is not true it can still be considered libel. Libel is not protected under the First Amendment.
But personally I think the teacher needs to man up.
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2 opinions for Of Midgets and Alligators
Paul
May 19, 2006 at 9:51 am
It really depends on the context of the comment. If it were in parody that same phrase IS protected. If it were being held out as a fact then it is libel. Unfortunately since I cannot read the page and full comment I’m not sure which it was meant to be so I’m not sure. But I suspect it was a 15 year old joking around, making fun of the teacher and thus would fall under the category of parody.
Liz
Jun 10, 2006 at 11:40 pm
That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard, it’s not like the kid said, “He’s a child molester” and he actually isn’t… the kid was making a joke. A JOKE! What about when you’re in elementary school and you draw a picture of the teacher with huge fanges and long fingernails, with a caption, “I EAT CHILDREN!!” Is that libel too? The kid is using the internet to express his feelings, instead of telling the teacher to fuck off to his face, he makes fun of him on a blog or whatever… The teacher getting upset about it, needs to get a life and find something better to do with his time than harass a student for saying something as light as “he wrestles alligators and midgets…”