Wilson High Student Suspended for YouTube Video
The Examiner reported this morning on a case of some dumb high school kids, the internet and potential free speech issues colliding at Wilson High School. The basic story is this: sophomore Jafaar Mohammad was videotaped by some friends making derogatory remarks about an unnamed Wilson teacher. The video is above, and its audio contains swear words that make it NSFW. It runs only about 17 seconds, and depicts Mohammed as being at a social gathering at a private residence. In the video, which is pretty garbled, Mohammed says that someone is "gay as shit," "the worst teacher ever," and then jokes that he "almost dreamed he was fucking him once." At no time in the video does Mohammed name the teacher or the school he attends.
The problem, according the Examiner, came when someone started emailing the video to students and staff members at Wilson. School administrators were alerted to the video, and Mohammed received a 15-day suspension, which was eventually reduced to 10 days. Mohammed's parents and some other sympathetic parent advocates are saying that it's not the school's business to punish a student for something he said or did off school grounds. Mohammed himself has claimed he was not the one who distributed the video around the school, and that he doesn't know who did.
As blogging and posting videos to the internet has become a standard pastime for kids all over the country, schools will no doubt have to deal with issues like these more and more. In this particular case, there's no doubt what Mohammed said in the video is offensive and stupid. But he's also a 15 year-old kid, and 15 year-old kids are pretty much offensive and stupid by definition. The Examiner story says Mohammed's parents are also alleging racism in the case, due to their Iraqi background. What do you think - were Wilson officials justified in suspending this student because of this video? Or did they overstep their bounds? Does a student posting something to the internet add up to the same thing as them mouthing off while in class?