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A 17-year-old Tennessee highschool pupil is suing his faculty district and directors after he was suspended for creating and posting satirical memes directed at his principal on social media.
In line with the federal lawsuit filed on July 19, the unnamed pupil, who is ready to start his senior yr at Tullahoma Excessive Faculty, accuses the Tullahoma Metropolis Faculty district, now-former Principal Jason Fast and Vice Principal Derrick Crutchfield of violating his First Modification proper to free speech after he was suspended for 3 days for posting the memes on Instagram.
Attorneys representing the college district and directors didn’t instantly reply to HuffPost’s request for remark.
“This case is a couple of thin-skinned highschool principal defying the First Modification and suspending a pupil for lampooning the principal on the scholar’s Instagram web page though the posts brought about no disruption at college,” attorneys for the scholar stated of their criticism.
The scholar posted three memes that featured Fast on his private Instagram account in 2022, whereas off campus and over summer season trip, in keeping with the lawsuit.
The satirical memes featured a picture of Fast holding a field of greens, with the textual content, “like a sister however not a sister <33,” an altered picture of Fast in a gown with cat ears and whiskers, and one along with his face positioned on a online game character being held by a cartoon hen.
“The scholar meant the pictures to be tongue-in-cheek commentary, gently ribbing a college administrator he perceived as humorless,” Conor Fitzpatrick, the lead lawyer representing the scholar, stated in an announcement.
On Aug. 10, 2022, instantly after Crutchfield informed the scholar he can be suspended for 5 days, the scholar suffered from a panic assault and skilled sweating, shortness of breath and misplaced feeling in each arms, the criticism stated.
The suspension was later decreased to 3 days after Crutchfield allegedly informed the scholar he “reviewed” the social media put up and believed it to be a extra acceptable punishment.
Within the assertion, Fitzpatrick and different attorneys working towards with the Basis for Particular person Rights and Expression (FIRE), a free speech advocacy group, stated the college directors couldn’t use imprecise social media insurance policies to punish off-campus acts.
“Principal Fast suspended a pupil over playful memes — however he can’t droop the First Modification,” FIRE lawyer Harrison Rosenthal stated within the assertion.
“So long as a pupil’s posts don’t considerably disrupt faculty, what teenagers put up on social media on their very own time is between them and their mother and father, not the federal government,” Fitzpatrick added.
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