Tuesday, August 11, 2009 , Updated 3:56 p.m., August 12, 2009
UPDATED: Burleson student’s suspension over profanity on MySpace is overturned
A comment made by a friend on her MySpace page that school administrators deemed to contain "inappropriate language" led to the suspension.
Lindsay Wessler, a member of the Burleson High School drill team, has been suspended from the team because of a comment made by a friend on her MySpace page that school administrators deemed to contain "inappropriate language." Wessler also had "provocative" photos of her in a bathing suit that the school considered objectionable. Wessler removed both the comment and the photos, but still faces a one-game suspension.
UPDATE: After Lindsay's mom appealed the school's decision, the suspension was overturned. The school found that the profanity on MySpace did not in fact violate a constitution signed by Lindsay. See Burleson ISD's formal decision at the end of this story.
"I want her rights to be upheld,” Alicia Smock, her mom, told NBC5. (She means rights to privacy and free speech, not the right to cussing online, specifically.)
District officials still say they're deeply concerned, but had to overturn it due to a technicality.
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Jesus Valadez, says:
...
You're kidding, right?
Verified
4 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
luniz, says:
this is why you restrict what people can see...
Anonymous
4 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Alex Bentley, says:
luniz, according to the linked article, the girl's page was private, but she had about 400 friends that had access to it. So maybe one of her "friends" narc'ed on her?
Staff
4 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Chris Kidd, says:
I tell ya, its a sticky wicket when it comes to 1st amendment issues of this nature. BISD apparently looks as if they're trying to save face and will more than likely try to use "student code"-type of arguments if it goes forward. From what I understand of the story, it was someone else who posted the comment, not the party in question. I have a feeling lawyers will get called into this before its all over..
Verified
4 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
AnnMarie Wilson, says:
Insanity rules!
Remember back to a time when all we had to worry about was passing notes?
Verified
4 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Pavel Lishin, says:
<i>this is why you restrict what people can see... </i>
Sorry, but flat out wrong. There's simply no way to do this.
Yeah, you can set things to "friends only", but then you have to trust your friends. What if they're in trouble, and the school tells them they'll go light on them if they let the principal check out your profile? What if a friend forgets to log out on a school computer? What if someone grabs a cached version?
If you put something on the internet, it's not a matter of "if", but "when" it'll get out.
Also, after I typed all that I see that Alex Bentley has beaten me to the punch.
Verified
4 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Peter Stawicki, says:
GOOD FOR THEM!! My best friends daughter has things on her Myspace page that would shock a prostitute. What would happen if someone stepped up and taught these kids to have some self respect. (yes a parent should be doing it but obviously isnt). Maybe the next generation wouldnt be drinking, cursing, sexing, piercing, and tattooing themselves before they reach 18.
(Boy am I going to get some nasty mail but in the end, I just want our kids to grow up with some self respect and I dont see it. (No I dont have my own kids))
Verified
4 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Scott Doyle, says:
My best friends daughter has things on her Myspace page that would shock a prostitute.
So, did your best friend knock up a prostitute to begin with or what?
Verified
4 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Travis Bush, says:
BISD must be awfully bored..and ratarded.
Verified
4 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Pavel Lishin, says:
Peter: I won't send you any nasty e-mail, but I don't see how having sex, drinking, cursing, piercing and getting tattoos is disrespectful.
Because I'm three for five, and circumstances might soon put me up to 80% disrespect on your scale.
Verified
4 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Alex Bentley, says:
<em>Three</em> for five, Pavel? Do we need to go through the comments to see if you've run the table?
Staff
4 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Travis Bush, says:
Alex..I don't think Pavel is ever sober enough to get tattoos or piercings..
Verified
4 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Pavel Lishin, says:
No tattoos or piercings over here!
Verified
4 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Chris Kidd, says:
Peter,your assumptions about most youth today is quite off, most of these kids today are quite normal compared to our generations, These kids are also smarter and more informed accordingly.
Alot of the issue is the "control" that the "district" is trying to put on these kids. In many ways, this comes down to a 1st amendment rights issue and it'll be interesting to see if the courts get involved with this situation.
Verified
4 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
luniz, says:
I'm not completely sure but I think you can list which friends are able to see what pictures? Or is that just facebook? But yea you can't do much about "inappropriate language". That's pretty unreasonable, although it's also a good reason not to use your real name.
Anonymous
4 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Scott Doyle, says:
circumstances might soon put me up to 80% disrespect on your scale
A) This could be a good long while, and we don't even know how likely the circumstances are to begin with.
B) You're terrified of needles and I insist on being present if you ever attempt to get inked or pierced.
I personally plan on at least 40% disrespectin' Pete tonight, 60% if I get lucky!
Verified
4 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
momzilla, says:
The inappropriate language amounted to a single use of the word that is typically also used of a female dog, according to channel 4 news yesterday evening. If the linked article is correct, it was evidently in a comment posted by somebody else. (Mom said last night it was "hacked" but probably doesn't know how the pages work.) And then there were pictures of her and a friend in bathing suits. Good grief. !
Man alive. And my kids thought that I was strict. In Burleson you're a juvenile delinquent if you read a vulgarity or wear a two piece swimming suit.
Anonymous
4 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
OEsophagus, says:
You people care way too much about high school students.
Anonymous
4 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Scott Doyle, says:
or wear a two piece swimming suit
Depends on where you're wearing the pieces, imo.
Verified
4 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
momzilla, says:
Good point, Scott. Sometimes, I guess, I'm not imaginative enough. Fortunately, my kids didn't give me too many shocks to the system.
I'm just appalled by the lack of common sense in school districts these days. This situation doesn't come anywhere close to a youtube video of a cheerleading squad doing jello shots topless.
Anonymous
4 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Travis Bush, says:
B) You're terrified of needles and I insist on being present if you ever attempt to get inked or pierced.
Doyle just wants to make sure his name is spelled right when Pavel gets teh tramp stamp..
Verified
4 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
jespinoza, says:
Apparently, most of the people here don't understand educational law.
Besides, the school atmosphere would be significantly worse if they would ALLOW every sort of self expression.
Just because schools are public institutions doesn't mean that they have to follow any one person's outlook. They enforce the community standards as well. I am sure they would hear more outcry if they would have simply let it slide (more local community outcry rather than the media created spotlight).
Anonymous
4 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Jason Rice, says:
::or wear a two piece swimming suit
Frankly, ScoDo in a two piece....
<font size="1">...shudder....</font>
I just can't go on with that. No way no how.
Verified
4 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
momzilla, says:
Oh, please. Educational law? 35 years ago, we were being subject to * Catcher in the Rye as REQUIRED reading. For that matter, I can name several words from the King James Bible that would probably have gotten this young lady suspended.
The young lady wasn't even expressing herself. She failed to delete a self expression from someone else who commented on her site and used a derogatory word that you would probably find in at least one song on the IPOD of nearly every kid in that school.
Anonymous
4 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Travis Bush, says:
You don't really see this stupidity in large city centers, because it would not only be terribly time consuming to investigate and punish, but it would cause a backlash among entire populations of students and other citizens...Burleson wishes they could control the Internetz..
Verified
4 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Scott Doyle, says:
Wonder what "educational law" would do to a student who said bitch here on PN?
Obviously not considered naughty enough to filter 'round these internet parts.
Verified
4 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Pavel Lishin, says:
You know what, folks, let's calm down here. We're just making <strong>asses</strong> of ourselves.
<img src="http://uploads.postfarm.net/public/postfarm/uploads-2.0/a/ass2.jpg">
<small><i>And Balaam rose up in the morning, and saddled his ass, and went with the princes of Moab.</i> - Numbers 22:21</small>
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4 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Chris Kidd, says:
Isn't Burleson the same city who used vice laws to prosecute a "adult novelty" party?? I tell ya, if those hayseeds were wiped off the face of the earth tomorrow, I wouldn't lose any sleep ;)
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4 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
momzilla, says:
I Sam 25:22
Anonymous
4 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Alex Bentley, says:
Momzilla's verse, for those not inclined to Google: "So and more also do God unto the enemies of David, if I leave of all that pertain to him by the morning light any that pisseth against the wall."
Staff
4 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Scott Doyle, says:
lol, District officials still say they're deeply concerned, but had to overturn it due to a technicality.
Owned at your own game, chumps. Does it hurt to sit down or did you get a prescription tightass pillow?
Verified
4 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Travis Bush, says:
Ecclesiastes 4:4-6
Verified
4 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
AnnMarie Wilson, says:
Yes it was Chris... aren't you glad you don't live in Burleson!
Verified
4 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Pavel Lishin, says:
Technically retarded, yup.
Verified
4 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Shirley, says:
Personally, I find it objectionable that school districts these days meddle in what is parental territory, period. What a student does off-campus is no one's business but the student and their parents. I certainly do not need help from the school district to teach my child self-discipline when off-campus. Butt out ISD's!
Anonymous
3 months, 4 weeks agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
sweetchuckd, says:
Check out http://detentionslip.org for all the crazy headlines from our schools. It's the leader for wild education news.
Anonymous
3 months, 3 weeks agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
ch0, says:
Weird. All the stoners used to go across the street to the c-store during lunch to partake in degeneration, yet no one ever got in trouble. And now, a teen can't post swimsuit pix and curse online? Such mixed feelings... I'd lock my daughter in the dungeon for doing this, yet I don't personally have a problem with it... ahh, sweet ambivalence, dost thou torture me
Anonymous
3 months, 3 weeks agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Pavel Lishin, says:
I'd ground my kids if I ever got wind that they never swore online.
I'd ground them in some filthy dive bar, I mean, but you know. Still. They wouldn't be able to leave.
Verified
3 months, 3 weeks agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Jason Rice, says:
I can't decide which is more strikingly disarming, the concept of Pavel as a stern albeit warped disciplinarian
... or the threat of his reproduction.
Verified
3 months, 3 weeks agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal