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School district blames ACLU for student's defamation claim
© 2006 Student Press Law Center
March 3, 2006
PENNSYLVANIA —
In a move that legal experts say “turns libel law on its head,” a
school district has sought permission to sue the attorneys representing a high
school student who sued the district after he was disciplined for posting an
online parody profile of his principal on MySpace.com.
Attorneys for
the Hermitage School District in Hermitage, Pa., filed a motion last week to
lodge a third party complaint against the American Civil Liberties Union
attorneys who are representing 18-year-old Justin Layshock in his lawsuit
against the school district.
Layshock was disciplined in December by
administrators at Hickory High School for creating a MySpace profile of
principal Eric Trosch on his grandmother’s computer. Among other comments,
under “birthday” the profile said, “too drunk to
remember.” In response to the question, “in the past month have you
smoked?” the profile said, “big blunt.”
MySpace.com
is a social networking site that allows people to post personal profiles, share
music and videos and maintain online journals.
When administrators
discovered the online profile, they suspended Layshock for 10 days, placed him
in an alternative learning program at school, barred him from participating in
school events or activities and said he could not attend his graduation.
Layshock has since been allowed to return to his regular classes and
can attend his June graduation, according to Donald Layshock, his
father.
Karen Ionta, superintendent for the Heritage School District,
declined to comment.
The motion filed by the school district Feb. 23
against Layshock’s attorneys said the ACLU contributed to Layshock’s
damaged reputation because of the publicity the lawsuit elicited.
A
draft of the complaint asks that if the school district loses the case,
attorneys for the school district have the opportunity to sue the ACLU and order
the organization to pay a percentage of the monetary damages awarded to the
defendant.
In other words, if Layshock wins his case, his own
attorneys may have to pay a portion of his damages, said Adam Goldstein, a legal
fellow at the Student Press Law Center.
“In theory, the third
party complaint creates financial pressure for the ACLU attorneys to lose the
case,” he said.
Goldstein said the filing of the third party
complaint “turns libel law on its head” by holding Layshock and his
attorneys responsible for the publicity that followed their filing of the
lawsuit against the school district.
“It’s like the
school is saying, ‘Why should we pay for the damages — you’re
the one who made it a news item,’” Goldstein said.
If
the motion is granted, it “creates a conflict between the Layshocks and
their attorneys,” said Vic Walczak, one of the ACLU attorneys representing
the family.
At the end of January, a district court judge denied
Layshock’s request for a temporary restraining order against the school
district. The decision was preliminary, according to Walczak, and the trial is
moving forward in the discovery process.
The lawsuit was originally
filed against the school district because Layshock’s free speech rights
were violated, Walczak said.
Layshock did not use school computers
to post the content, and created the profile during non-school hours, he
said.
The Jan. 31 decision that denied the restraining order said
that after the MySpace profile was posted, the student body at Hickory High
School was “abuzz about the profiles, who created them and how they could
be accessed,” and that Layshock’s actions apparently
“substantially disrupted school operations.”
But Walczak
said the school district “greatly exaggerated” its claims of
disruption.
“School officials need to understand there are
limits on their authority,” Walczak said. “They may not like
something students say on their home computers and post on the Internet, but
it’s for the parents to decide what, if any, discipline is
appropriate.”
Goldstein said a decision on the school
district’s motion to file a third party complaint may not be decided for
another month.
—by Allison
Retka, SPLC staff writer
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