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Professor Sues teacherreview.com Site Operator
CmdrPorno writes "ZDTV's [Cybercrime Section] reports that the fellow who created the teacherreview.com Web site is being sued by one of the professors who claims he was defamed on the site." Oh, my. Someone said something bad about someone else on the Internet? Maybe I should sue Slashdot for every AC that's said something about the quality of my writing. Seriously, take a look at this, although some of the language is questionable.
I run the site PHS Sucks, which I set up to criticize the administration at my high school. I put up some posters in the school, and the result has been that the administration is trying to hunt me down. I have heard from students who have heard from teachers, and one with direct knowledge of the administration, that I am a high priority.
I have been able to remain anonymous thus far, and while some have criticized me for doing so, I think it's the only safe thing for now.
The school administration should not be able to punish students for using their free speech to criticize the school. But they do, and while the student may be able to win in court eventually, that is something no one wants to go through.
Anyway, to any other high school students out there contemplating setting up a website, I say go for it. You may want to remain anonymous for safety though. In any case, I would highly recommend making it abundantly clear that if the administration tries to retaliate in any way, you will also. The last thing the principal wants is your URL on the front page of your local paper, or on huge signs around the town. If they know you won't give up, they may think twice before giving you some Draconian punishment.
The other aspects of your post are dealt with in other replies, so I'll leave them there. Besides, I tried responding and ended up with a five-page rant on the differences between a teacher who is simply hard and a teacher who is both hard and good, since you obviously don't understand that. Yes, a good teacher is demanding, but it takes much more than high standards to make a good teacher. Take it from someone who's known some of the best of the best, and some of the worst of the worst. But I'm ranting again...
o us, and probably all five. In other words, a total bastard. Blinded by their own prejudices, they can't possibly conceive of the possibility that I just might have a human heart. And while I do derive a bit of perverse pleasure from proving them wrong every single time, I still don't see why I or anyone else should have to do that.
No, I'm going to talk about the "homophobia" bit. Frankly, looking over the reviews, I don't see a shred of it. Not a single reviewer gave any indication of having a problem with the fact that the professor was gay. Plenty of them had problems with the fact that the professor was a jerk about being gay. I don't blame them; I also have problems with people who are jerks about being gay. Just as I have problems with people who are jerks about being straight, bi, celibate, or whatever. Does that make me homophobic? I don't particularly think so; just someone who doesn't like jerks.
For that matter, there's another thing I don't like. And it has some bearing on your post. Some people reading this might have seen this rant some time ago, but I think it applies again here. I'll put it to you straight: I'm white, male, Republican, straight, and Christian. Because of those factors, I find that every single thing I say and do is scrutinized quite intensely by people who don't even know me, looking for the slightest trace of racism, sexism, reactionism, homophobia, and lunatic zealotry. Why? Simply put, because of several coincidences involving my birth and subsequent upbringing, they assume I'm at least some combination of racist/misogynist/reactionary/homophobic/overzeal
You are no different from them. You took the words of people you don't even know. Not finding anything immediately offensive to support your own prejudice, you read something completely inappropriate from the posts with absolutely no evidence to support your claims. And then you waltzed into Slashdot accusing them of homophobia.
Racism, sexism, homophobia, hypersensitivity (be it racial, religious, political, or whatever in origin); they're all the same thing. They come from the same sources: paranoia and disrespect. They end in the same thing: hate. And they cause the same things: inequity, injustice, and suffering. The differences between them are trivial at best; they are basically all the same. And you exhibited one of these in your post. Think about that for a while.
No it doesn't. It represents the professors appraisal of the student's work. Such an appraisal should be objective and should NOT by any means make false/unfounded attacks on the students character ( that would be grounds for disciplinary action against the prof and/or a law suit ). Likewise, there are bounds of acceptability regarding a student grading a prof.
Read more carefully.
Actually, the review in question was from someone who had never taken his class, and therefore could not have gotten a bad grade. He simply stated that his current English teacher warned him not to curzon-brown's class.
While I'm sure you enjoyed bitching about all the people who were better then you in high school, but who actually turned out not to be anywhere near as smart as you is nether relevant to the discussion or at all.
ReadThe ReflectionEngine, a cyberpunk style n
I have been working as well on a site much like teacherreview.com. I think that Ryan's (Creator of Teacher Review) site is laid out in such a way that it gives somewhat of fairness to teacher's and students. Students reporting on Teachers is a valid resource and one that is truely needed in this day and age.
When I choose what classes I want, I make damn sure that I ask around and find out what other students think of other teachers. Anyone that has been in any public collge can relate to some of the nightmares students have had with certain teachers. I look at this site as bringing word of mouth reviews to the web and I know it would be a great resource for my school. I think in all fairness that students should have a say in who to take because it is THEIR education and they are PAYING for this. We have a choice as students and more power to Ryan & TeacherReview.com.
I think this shines the light on Great Teachers and helps students find those great teachers. Pending this lawsuit's outcome, I will deploy my site for my school.
Good luck Ryan, TeacherReview and thanks to the American Civil Liberties Union for helping him out in this time of need. The outcome of this case might very well shape the future of the Internet!
If anyone knows of anything I can do to help Ryan & his site out please let me know.
Also thanks to the Great Teachers that are out there.
Gregg
------------------------------------ Step into my Office... WhY? Cuz your %$#$ing Fired...
Or by the same angry students sending in multiple reviews, so your grade point average is a lie to begin with, and yet the webmaster is saying, 'Use this to choose your classes.' I don't know what to say. How can anyone defend this?
Well, in fact, the webmaster states that he has been removing multiple reviews from the same person, where he can spot them. So you're probably actually getting a fair representation of how much people dislike this guy.
Flamage can have value, IMHO. If his students are this worked up, I'll bet he really is a crappy teacher.
If I were him, I'd think twice about suing. As Oscar Wilde said,"Never sue. They might prove it." Sure, he went on to ignore his own advice, but the point still stands. Can you imagine the professor sitting in class while the webmaster's lawyer calls student after student who says the class is a waste of time?
-- Support Ometz le-Serev.
I thought the CDA got repealed in '96 or '97.
Two provisions in the CDA that imposed censorship on electronic communications were found to be unconstitutional (and therefore cannot legally be enforced). That didn't affect the rest of the CDA, including the provision limiting liability of a service provider.
One interesting point here is that the Communications Decency Act, of all things, provides an absolute bar against such suits. A service provider cannot be held responsible for material posted by a user, and Lathouwers is a "service provider". He's offering an automated service which allows others to comment on teacher quality. Even if he does some manual editing, he doesn't lose that immunity. That was clearly established in a case involving AOL. So the case will probably be dismissed on Wednesday.
If Brown can show this professor did not feel that this was sneaky, then he may have a case.
As for reasonable care, it's an automated process. The site points out that these are the opinions of the authors. This is not a newspaper that takes something that was sent in and via manual process inserts it into the galley sheets.
It has been decided in a case with AOL (ZERAN v AMERICA ONLINE INC) that 230 (from the CDA) immunizes computer service providers. In Zeran, it was being argued that AOL did not remove the defamatory information quick enough. Even if this did not provide protection, Brown would have to show that they had notice of this. It does not look like he is making this argument.
As to the public figure, there is also limited public figure. That is if it is an issue of public concern. The quality of teaching could be considered public concern.
It is clearly marked that the information is opinion. Though you can't say in my opinion, X is a child molester and claim that it's only opinion and not actionable. The statements must be taken in context. Pritsker v. Brudnoy 452 N.E.2d 227 (1983), Cole v. Westinghouse 386 Mass 303 (1982).
I have my summary judgment motion regarding my case available for you to read.
Fight Spammers!
I attend Clemson University in South Carolina and my freshman year, a friend of mine created a page which does the exact same thing. The site, http://hubcap.clemson.edu/PSP/ryp.htm is located on the Phi Sigma Pi web site. A national Honors fraternity.
I believe it was a Dr. Li in the Math department (MTHSC) who threatened for several months to sue the web-site creator and the fraternity for libel. The school paper picked up the story and there was a big stink for a couple of months.
Now the lawsuit's basis was that the former web master (it is now automated via Perl) was attempting to remove profanity and total flamage from some of the posts. Dr. Li threatened to sue because of the fact that the former webmaster edited some of the submissions... just not enough b/c there was still profanity and the like. In the web masters defense, there were way too many submission for only one person and he had a hard time keeping up w/ both the site and his classes.
The KICKER here is that I was with this former web master when the idea presented itself. The presenter was another college professor who was meeting with students from the Honors College. He/she was one of the best professors I have had to date so its obvious why he/she pushed this concept. As a matter of fact, he/she remains one of the top ranked teachers on the site.
He/she was also a wonderful connection to have because any conversations between the faculty were forwarded to the former web master and friends and eventually to the web master's lawyer.
So, after several months of B.S., the buffon finally got over the whole liberal thing and the web site was transformed into an automated message board w/ a little math functionality to compute rankings. Go BigBlue!!!
How come no one ever reads the Bible anymore? If Judaism taught us one thing, it's 'an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.' This guy needs to quit his bawling and setup a student review web site. I can only imagine what professors must say about their students behind closed doors. Well, get some of that out into the open and make these kids eat their words. Let's get this brawl started, baby!
I can only imagine what they'd say about me:
This little bastard came in and told me how to do my job. The little prick. I made one stinkin' mistake on the blackboard and he had to point it out in a 'it is obvious that you made a mistake but I'll let you find it' question. That's right after waking up from a 45-minute nap which he pulled off in the front row! Pray to God you never get this kid.
I bet he has fun with little boys down on Polk Street.
Sheesh, honestly folks, if people are going to act childish, well, make sure they do it right, dammit.
The ACLU sued a school for suspending a student when he posted criticism of teachers on his web site.
Does anyone know how this turned out?
ACLU Defends Student Website in Case that Threatens Free Expression on the Internet
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, January 31, 2000
SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- In a case with important implications for free speech on the Internet, the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern
California has asked a Superior Court to dismiss a lawsuit aimed at shutting down a website that provides student reviews of the teachers at San
Francisco City College.
The lawsuit was filed in San Francisco Superior Court City College by professor Daniel Curzon Brown, who objects to what students had to say about his
teaching.
The ACLU, on behalf of Ryan Lathouwers, the creator of the Teacher Review website, says that the speech is protected under the First Amendment.
Other defendants in the suit, the San Francisco Community College District, which is the governing body of City College, and the Associated Students of
City College, agree.
"The Teacher Review website is a perfect example of how the Internet functions as a unique and valuable information source," said ACLU of Northern
California staff attorney Ann Brick. "If permitted to proceed, this case would sound the death knell for any website or bulletin board allowing members of
the public to exchange opinions."
A City College student himself at the time he created Teacher Review, Lathouwers said he wanted to provide an online resource for students trying to
decide which teachers and courses to select. At the time, there was no systematic way for students to find out just what other students who had taken a
class from any particular instructor had to say about the experience.
The website, with its student-authored reviews, was launched in September 1997. Since that time, more than 5,000 individual reviews of nearly 600 City
College instructors have been posted. The site, which has proved very popular with students, has been visited over 100,000 times.
Curzon Brown, a tenured English professor, was rated on the website as one of the ten worst teachers at City College. Student reviews of Curzon Brown
include comments like "pompous," "the most egotistical extremist there is" and "the worst teacher I have ever had the opportunity of knowing."
"Imagine a liberal arts professor unable to tolerate his students expressing their own opinions, and unwilling to allow students to draw their own
conclusions from what others have to say," said Bernard Burk of Howard, Rice, Nemerovski, Canady, Falk & Rabkin, who is representing Lathouwers as
a cooperating attorney with the ACLU of Northern California. "Fortunately, the First Amendment prevents people like Professor Curzon Brown from
using lawsuits to silence their critics."
Last October, Curzon Brown filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of himself and all other City College employees "who have been or will be defamed by
the content of Teacher Review." His suit seeks monetary damages, and an injunction prohibiting the posting of "defamatory" reviews on the website and
prohibiting either City College or the Associated Students from linking to Teacher Review.
A hearing is scheduled for March 29th in San Francisco Superior Court.
The case is Curzon-Brown v. San Francisco Community College District. In addition to Burk and Brick, the case is being litigated by Celia P. Van Gorder
and Sean A. Pager of Howard, Rice, Nemerovski, Canady, Falk & Rabkin, and ACLU of Northern California attorney Margaret Crosby. A copy of the
ACLU's motion is available online at http://www.aclunc.org.
Sounds a Dr Lan whos class I walked out of a
...
:-)
few times...
On his test in C/Unix the question was:
What is the shell in unix called?
The "correct" answer was csh.
The wrong answers include:
/bin/sh sh shell ksh tcsh
When I posted part of his test to usenet, I was amazing how no one seemed to know the "correct" answers.
When I appealed the grade (he claimed to have given me a C to be nice but siad I deserved a D) I had included printouts of posts from comp.lang.c. When he asked who these people were, I handed him a white book with a blue C on the front and said "one of them wrote this". His comment was they hadn't reviewd the book and would not consider it to help my case.
The professor used to loose my assignments that were emailed to him. Funny, the sendmail logs showed it getting to his server. Why did he only loose stuff from EE/CE students and not CS students...hmmm.
I think I'll write a letter to UMC asking for my money back. Maybe I should get a lawyer to write it
The libel laws are clear. If this person is giving opinion, then it can't be libel. If it is stated as fact, then it may be.
The statment
is clearly not libelous.Publications on the web should be held to be the same standard as the newspapers.
Inflamatory opions are not libel. Wrong opinios are not libel.
What some companies, such as Mattel , are using the libel laws as a way to quiet dissent or negative publicity.
This guy appears to be trying to do the same.
This is the review, I believe he is suing over.
Fight Spammers!