Punished for Blogging

Jon Summers of KLAS-TV in Las Vegas, reports about a story that reminds me of the Rachele Boim saga. I posted about Boim here, here, here and here. Summers reports that the Clark County School District is forcing Wesley Juhl to change high schools in the middle of his senior year. The district says Juhl didn't have the required permission he needed attend Valley were he has gone to high school until now. The district forced Julh to transfer schools after an investigation into postings Juhl made to his personal blog.

In one posting Juhl, referring to an annoying friend, wrote:

"I am letting go of all (most) my bad feelings about everyone and basing new ones off how tro day goes. Kill Alaina!"

Another post, this one about a teacher, reads:

"Shimpock is being a gaddam (expletive)! What crawled up his (expletive) lately?! News at 11."

Juhl wrote those comments on personal blog using his personal computer. The comments were written in the privacy of his home during the summer.

Juhl said:

"The dean told me that what I'd written wasn't school appropriate. He said it wasn't appropriate for a journal. I just feel like I've been violated, like they've punished me for expressing my personal opinion."

Before he was forced to transfer schools, Juhl had to serve an in-school suspension.

According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Juhl has never been suspended and is a fairly good student. He was part of the academically rigorous International Baccalaureate program for three years, although he chose not to continue it this year. He was also taking advanced placement classes in government and English. Juhl said he was able to pick up those classes at his new school, but had to drop his probability and statistics class because it wasn't offered at his new school. He was Valley's homecoming king this year and also was president of its drama club.

Juhl's mother told the Review Journal that she unsuccessfully appealed to Principal Ron Montoya to reverse the decision. Montoya used the Columbine massacre as an example of why discipline was necessary.

Principal Montoya’s is wrong to rely on Columbine to try and justify this unfair overreaction. A couple of sentences posted on a blog is a far cry from the maps and plans which the Columbine murderers wrote and talked about with friends.

School officials had no right to punish Juhl for comments posted on his blog using his own computer while at home. The posts can’t reasonably be interpreted as a real threat. The district will find it difficult to prove that the did not force his transfer because it did not like what Juhl posted on his blog.

Thanks to Instapundit for the pointer.