

Racist Teens Forced to Answer for Tweets About the 'N***er' President - rkudeshi
http://jezebel.com/5958993/racist-teens-forced-to-answer-for-tweets-about-the-nigger-president

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csense
While most of us find these tweets distasteful, I personally find the notion
that the school should be able to punish them troubling.

Presumably they're saying these things at home, on their own time, not during
school hours or at school-sanctioned events -- so the school has no grounds to
punish them.

(I'm assuming they go to public school. Private schools probably have a much
wider leeway to require students to place restrictions on their conduct as a
condition of continued enrollment.)

While the comments are distasteful, nothing illegal is being said here. The
speech in question is criticism of a political figure, which is a specifically
protected category of speech.

(The article briefly brushes on the fact that death threats -- especially
against the President -- can result in criminal charges. Death threats cross a
line that racial epithets do not.)

OTOH, I'm not arguing that their behavior shouldn't or doesn't have
consequences. The Internet community can apply public pressure, and if the
school is made aware that they're making these tweets, school officials should
be able to inform their parents. If the accounts are connected to their real
names, they may regret it years later, when significant others, colleges or
employers Google them and don't like what they find.

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peeplaja
Twitter should really do something about its security. All these accounts
getting hacked all the time...

