Slashdot Mirror
Lawsuit Over Two-Word Tweet Moves Forward
An anonymous reader writes: A defamation suit filed by a former Minnesota high school student has gotten approval from a federal judge to proceed. The suit was filed in response to a suspension issued by the school after Reid Sagehorn published a two-word comment on Twitter. In 2014, there existed a Twitter ostensibly about confessions from students at Sagehorn's high school. That account asked if Sagehorn had made out with a particular female teacher, and Sagehorn jokingly replied, "Actually yes." Not long after, he was suspended for five days, and that suspension was later extended to the rest of the month. The school administration convinced his parents to withdraw him from the school and send him to a different one. The town's police chief even spoke about it to the media, saying the comment was likely a felony. Sagehorn filed the lawsuit seeking damages and an expungement of the disciplinary actions.
The teacher actually did kiss the boy. The school wanted to cover up a teacher misconduct issue and manipulated the student to admitting it was a joke. The school then tries to cover their ass more by suspending him and manipulating the parents to get him to go to a different school. The police chief was just ignorant to everything. The buy who actually kissed the teacher realized what BS this was and got nothing but problems from the situation had enough and is suing. I'm not saying the teacher took advantage of the student when they kissed. It could have been mutual. He could have had a hand in making it happen. It could have just been a kiss on the cheek or hand. I just don't believe for one minute either side of the story is completely true.