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US School Student Upset Over Suspension for “cyberbullying” Sues Principal

by Gopalan on Dec 12 2008 4:25 PM

A former high school student in US has sued her school principal for suspending her for “cyberbullying”  a teacher. The student says her freedom of speech has been violated.

Katherine Evans, 18, who recently graduated from Pembroke Pines Charter High School north of Miami, Florida is suing principal Peter Bayer for suspending her after she posted negative comments about her English teacher, the Miami Herald reported.

Ms Evans created the Facebook group "Ms Sarah Phelps is the worst teacher I've ever met!" in November 2007 featuring a picture of the teacher, and asked her friends to join, the newspaper said.

The three students who joined only did so to praise Ms Phelps and criticise Ms Evans, after which she took down the page from the popular social networking site, it said.

But school authorities got word of the group and suspended Ms Evans for three days for cyberbullying and disruptive behaviour. She was also removed from her advanced placement classes.

The lawsuit, filed on Monday by the American Civil Liberties Union, does not seek monetary damages but calls on the school to remove the suspension penalty, which "stained (Ms Evans's) academic record and violated her First Amendment rights."

Source-Medindia
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