More on the D Word and Freedom to Blog About Your School

A couple of posts back I was posting on the student who got suspended and banned from running for class secretary for calling her administrators douchebags in her blog. This month's Connecticut Magazine (connecticutmag.com- but don't bother there is little current content online) has a column by long time Connecticut journalist Larry Bloom the sheds more light on the circumstances. Pardon me as I summarize (and really Larry & Company - let folks read you online).

Last spring Avery Doninger, was class secretary of her junior class at Mills High in Burlington CT, and active in extracurricular activities. According to Bloom, one of the activities was Jamfest, an annual competition of student bands. The students wanted to hold the Jamfest on April 28 in the auditorium, but the faculty member required to run the equipment was not available. The administration told the kids to change the date, or hold it in the cafeteria, not an ideal spot. The students countered with a proposal that an outside professional be hired to run the equipment. Four students sent out an email to many local homes urging citizens to lobby the Supt. on behalf of their plan. The Principal met with Avery and expressed her displeasure. As Bloom puts it, proper ways to address conflict resolution did not include urging taxpayers to pester the administration. In the local press it was reported that at that point the Principal canceled the Jamfest. Bloom reports that she did not and quotes Avery's answer in the subsequent court hearing that the Principal left open that the Jamfest might happen but not on April 28 and the fact that the Jamfest was held on June 8. Nevertheless that evening Avery in her Livejournal wrote that the concert was "canceled by the douchebags in the central office" and urged her readers to complain to the Supt to "piss her off more".

When the Principal learned of the post she told Avery she had to do three things - apologize to the Superintendent, show her mother what she wrote and drop out of the election for class secretary for the senior year. Avery agreed to the first two, but refused to comply with the the third. The Principal following school policy that all candidates had to be endorsed by the administration, removed Avery's name from the ballot, and we are off to the lawyers. Avery became a cause celeb with T-shirts supporting her being banned and of course she was the landslide write in candidate, but those votes were not allowed. The kid gets it, she know she was rude but she feels she was unfairly punished.

And now it is all about the legal principals and Internet rights, and free speech, and the impact of student speech on schools and ACLU and pro bono, and fund raising dinners. But I think I like Bloom's conclusion that for all their experience in dealing with kid issues far more troublesome than this the administrators have allowed this to turn into an expensive public pissing match.