One Man Banned
A federal judge in Cleveland has ruled that 16-year-old Sean O'Brien
could not be kept out of school for having made unflattering remarks
about a teacher on the web page he runs from his home computer.
The judge went on to say that the school had no authority over what
O'Brien could post on his site. At issue was the posting of a
photograph of O'Brien's band teacher, accompanied by a description
of him as overweight and overbearing, which had earned O'Brien a
10-day suspension from Westlake High Scool. O'Brien had served
eight days before being reinstated, and is suing the school district for
First Amendment violations to the tune of $550,000.