Fake MySpace gets student expelled
Lawsuit Involving Fake MySpace Page In Tipton County:
Chris Barnett of Brighton High School in Brighton Tenn. made a fake MySpace of his assistant principal. He posted about the assistant principal acting inapropriately around female students. Barnett was then thrown out of school. Did his parents admonish him for not finding a more reasonable way to address his concerns about the assistant principal? Of course not. They’re suing the school.
Chris’s dad Donald Barnett is furious with how school officials decided to handle the situation. He said it is a violation of his son’s right to free speech. “It was just so outlandish the way they reacted, that we were just in awe of the way they reacted,” said Barnett, “They went after Chris, they kicked him out of school, for something they had no right to do, that’s the main point.”
How come people can’t grasp the concept of free speech. When you say something or post something on the internet those words may have consequences. The consequence in this case was being expelled from school. His right to free speech was not violated. Plus if the accusations are untrue then that cab be considered libel which is not protected speech.
Tags: Brighton-High-School, Chris-Barnett, expelled, fake
11 opinions for Fake MySpace gets student expelled
Concerned Parent
Feb 2, 2007 at 12:58 pm
Free speech is just that…free speech. These boys had the right to say what they wanted to. If this was done on school grounds, I believe they would have violated school policy and should be punished. This isn’t about money, it’s about having the offense of “Assault on School Employee” removed from their records. When were we no longer allowed to poke fun at teachers? This is something we have all done.
Mary
Feb 2, 2007 at 1:05 pm
Seems to me the school principal needs to sue the parents as guardians for slander and defamation of character, committed by their child. People today seem to think it is okay for these “children” to do anything and everything. These kids are getting on the internet and having a blast. They put up phoney profiles on myspace and other dating sites, lie about their age, post soliticous picutres and other sexually provaking things about themselves, play with adults like they have a free ride cart blanche. Then when the adult falls in their trap, they are slammed with legal problems and accused of being a predator of these little “innocent” babies. I don’t think it is funny. I do not know why parents allow it. I do not know why the legal system is allowing it.
Children are obligated to follow the same laws as all the rest of us. And those kids parents are expected to see that they do follow the law and are responsible if they do not. They are legally responsible for damages their child causes. They better wake up.
Trench
Feb 2, 2007 at 2:43 pm
Concerned Parent, they sure do have the right to say what they want to say. No one is arguing that. But the school has the right to do what they want to do which was to expel the kid. Free speech doesn’t mean free of consequences.
Concerned Parent
Feb 3, 2007 at 12:22 am
Trench, I agree, if they had broken the rules of the school. They did not do any of this on school grounds. Where do we draw the line? School can punish for wrong doing at school. Parents are to punish for wrong doing at home. We haven’t heard the entire story but from what’s being told, many other students are the ones who posted negative/inappropriate comments about the teacher. Were they punished? Did the school investigate the allegations or punish the kids to make this go away? Alot more to wait and hear all the facts…
Mary, did you ever say anything about any of your teachers that you didn’t like? All kids do it! Does that mean they are committing slander or defamation of character? Come on…
Trench
Feb 3, 2007 at 12:10 pm
A lot of schools, including my high school, had a school ethics code that could even be enforced off of school grounds. This is nothing new.
For example back in my day if I had spray painted graffiti on a building off of school grounds that said my principal was a child molester and I was caught I would have definitely been expelled.
Concerned Parent
Feb 3, 2007 at 2:06 pm
Well maybe the school has ignored accusations that need to be investigated. I have heard that there have been past issues with this particular coach. The school protects it’s teachers but who is protecting our children? There are teachers across the nation acting inappropriately. How do handle this? This school has punished the kids for voicing concerns and they are punished. Sounds like a possible cover up?
Trench
Feb 3, 2007 at 7:42 pm
That may be all well and good but there are ways to go about having claims like that investigated. If the claims turn out to be true then the parents have every right to sue. But if the parents knew their kid was posting these accusations on MySpace then they’re idiots for letting it get this far.
Kim
Apr 17, 2007 at 10:53 pm
I believe the issue is not so much with the slander of a school employee, but with the impersonation. I can make fun of police officers. I cannot impersonate one, legally. Even if I impersonated a fellow employee, it would STILL be illegal. I am offended that a parent would use the “Freedom of Speech” argument to defend an illegal individual impersonating another individual, which can be classified as a felony and has several other charges associated with it, even for minors. They are welcome to sue (although their tax dollars are paying for it), but that could easily result in formal charges against the student. Think about it: if somebody stole your identity, wouldn’t you be concerned? Wouldn’t you want that person punished for the violation of law, as well as for the fact that they are obviously completely devoid of character?
Students should be allowed to use websites as they please at home, unless it results in illegal activity, in which case you lose rights. If I shoot somebody for taking my parking spot, I am willingly giving up my right to carry a weapon. It is especially important for students to know that they DO have rights, but that bad decisions (particularly those that harm the rights of OTHERS) leads to the loss of rights. Period. If you don’t like it, then good luck finding a community that believes otherwise.
Respectfully submitted,
Kim
Myspaceforparents owned by a fraudster at Uno se Blog
Jul 2, 2007 at 9:09 am
[…] That’s not what this post is about though. What I find so greatly ironic is that the myspaceforparents.com is registered by Chris Barnett. I don’t really know who Chris Barnett is, so I Googled him (this is a favourite tactic for fishing out all kinds of juicy details) and eventually found this: […]
Bob
Aug 31, 2007 at 10:31 pm
Actually, if the school is public, and I believe it is, they wouldn’t be within legal bound to expel him because of what he said. However, as Kim pointed out, he wasn’t just exercising his right to free speech, but was impersonating another person online. If the assistant principal wanted to press fraud charges, he probably could.
Nerffo
Feb 21, 2008 at 5:02 pm
Seems pointless in this sort of forum for people who do not practice law to debate what is or is not legal or punishable in what seems to be a fairly illogical order. does anyone here actually know what they are talking about, and if so perhaps they could clear it all up? was the site really defamation? is the pricipal considered a public figure? could it be seen as parody? was the myspace page malicious? and after all that, does it qualify as free speech at all? all these things are not so cut and dry. people will be willing to argue both sides.
Have an opinion? Leave a comment: