Student Suspended For Posting On YouTube

An anonymous reader writes "A Canadian student has been suspended from school and had the police called on him due to satirical animations that he posted to YouTube. Jack Christie, a 12th-grade student at the Donald A. Wilson Secondary School in Whitby, Ontario, Canada, created the videos in his own time, off-campus."

Comments

Happens every time

[Rijnzael]

Schools in North America at least--if not everywhere in the West--seem to think that their disciplinary powers extend to any actions committed by students anywhere during their years of attendance.

In my opinion, the only time a school should have the ability to initiate disciplinary action for an act committed off school premises should be after trial and conviction of a crime. Free speech protections often don't apply in schools (don't get me started on that), but a school has absolutely no right to restrict a student's speech off school grounds, and this would be aptly enforced by requiring disciplinary sanctions for off ground behavior be the result of a conviction in a court of law. This school would get laughed at if they even mentioned prosecution of this student for this behavior to a DA, so there's no reason they should be allowed to do this.

Fuck everything about this

[Mabbo]

"Gavin Russell, prime minister of the student government, gathered scores of signatures on a petition supporting Mr. Christie before two staff members warned him that, if he continued, he could also face punishment."

I am ashamed of my country when I can read that, and it isn't followed by "The staff members were promptly fired". Believe it or not, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms applies even to high school kids, and no, your petty little school rules do not trump those Rights.

Right...

[Haedrian]

The summery says: "Created the videos in his own time, off-campus."

The video says: "This was done up back in November of 2010, for an economics course project."

So I don't think its as independent from school as this summary wants to make you believe.

Re:Right...

[Maestro4k]

The summery says: "Created the videos in his own time, off-campus."

The video says: "This was done up back in November of 2010, for an economics course project."

So I don't think its as independent from school as this summary wants to make you believe.

That doesn't mean the school owns them however, so they have no right to threaten him with calling the police over the videos if he didn't take them down, which the same article tells you they did (emphasis added):

He said his teachers had no problem with the content – one even lent his voice to an animation – and he didn’t get in trouble until he uploaded the videos to YouTube. He was swiftly given a one-day suspension. A few days later, his principal laid out an ultimatum: Take the videos down or the police would be called. He refused to budge.

And since they didn't have an issue with them when he did them for the class project (and a teacher even participated in them), they're going to have serious trouble trying to get anyone to believe they only felt like they were a threat to the school's moral values after they were put on YouTube. If they were truly a threat they should have done something when he made them for the class project.

So that has no bearing on the case. All the signs are that something in one (or more) of the videos made fun of the school principal and he's got a burr up his ass over it and is punishing the kid for refusing to bow to his perceived authority. (And given all the circumstances, I seriously doubt the school's going to win here. Their not doing anything when he presented them for the class project is going to damage any case they might have had irreparably. The fact that a teacher participated actively in one video will destroy any remaining chance they might have had.)

Oh, come on.

[Jesus_666]

Everyone knows that satire means you're dangerous. Let me explain:

Satire means you have no respect for authority.
Having no respect for authority means you have no respect for the police.
Having no respect for the police means you have no respect for their guns.
Having no respect for guns means you place no value on your own life.
If you place no value on your own life, why place a value on other people's lifes?
And since you value neither your own life nor that of anyone else you're practically guaranteed to commit at least a murder-suicide.

Satirists should be shot and then carpet-bombed for the safety of us all.