The AP (4/26) reports that in a lawsuit filed on their behalf by the ACLU, "three eighth-graders from northwest Indiana who say they were expelled after joking on Facebook about which of their classmates they would like to kill asked a federal judge Wednesday to order the district to allow them to return to school." The lawsuit "says school officials told the girls they had violated school policy against bullying, harassment and intimidation," but the ACLU counters that the district violated the girls' First Amendment rights.
The Chicago Tribune (4/26, Williams-Harris) reports that the district expelled the girls "over a lengthy conversation on Facebook. According to the complaint, the conversation went from the pain of cutting oneself while shaving to the girls' friendship, before shifting to which of their classmates they would kill if given the chance." Though the ACLU calls the activity "teenage banter," the Tribune reports an examiner at an expulsion hearing found that "the girls' behavior violated the school's policy concerning bullying, harassment and intimidation."
The Muncie (IN) Star Press (4/26) reports that a statement from the ACLU of Indiana said that the online comments "were clearly meant to be humorous, as evidenced by their repeated use of emoticons such as ;) and abbreviations such as LOL and LMFAO, and caused no disruption at school."
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