Hokay, so. Let me say right off the bat for you lawyer folk: I understand that all advice dispensed herein is completely off the record, and is merely advice. That said, let me explain the situation:

My idiot brother and his friends made a Facebook group devoted to hatred toward their least favorite middle school professor. In it, my brother made a comment to the effect of "I want to shoot so-and-so in the face, who's with me?" Very, very stupid, but I guess he's still young and doesn't realize that online behavior can be traced back to you and yadda yadda.

Sooo flash forward to someone turning it into the school and him getting suspended for five days. Cool. Right. So we think it's over, and then they decide that they want to expel him for the remained of the year. Not so cool. Official decision comes in tomorrow.

So, my question is two-fold:
a) How would you fight to keep him in school? Are they even ALLOWED to punish him for behavior that took place off of school grounds?
b) The teacher is also pressing charges (he's a very nice guy, yah?). What exactly can they do with this?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Where were your parents the whole time this went down? They didn't know about this facebook group did they?

IANAL, but this is Rule #314 why you shouldn't give middle schoolers free access to the internet.

Has anyone actually apologized to this teacher yet? I'd think that'd be the first thing your family should have done after finding out about this facebook group.

I mean, to be realistic, my parents don't really monitor Internetzz usage (nor do most easy-going parents, methinks). They certainly didn't know about it -- I'm tempted to say they probably didn't even now he had a Facebook.

And yes, I agree re: free access to Internet... to an extent. But regardless.

I asked my dad the same question about writing a letter directly to the teacher, and he said he thought my brother had. But he's in Buffalo right now, so what does he know? I'll ask my mom about that. But yeah, good point.

A similar issue occured with a high school classmate of mine, and I wouldn't be suprised if some college students had the same thing occur. Hooray for Zero tolerance, eh?

I want to shoot my radiojornalism teacher on the jaw, with a hollow point magnum to see her mouth blowing up, cause the bitch cant stop rambling all the fuckin time!!

*Reports HB to the Brazilian equivalent of the FBI*

Honestly, if this were my child, i would hire a lawyer immediately.

With today's climate on these types of issues, it could snowball pretty quick. If the teacher does indeed press charges, there is no telling what they are going to be.

Lawyer. Not RM.

Why not a RM lawyer? PD, I choose you!

Yeah, in addition, I've never fully understood why the concept of expelling still remains. I understand keeping the bad kids from poisoning the good kids, but if the kid isn't going to school, what else is he going to do?

He'll have more time to plan his assault on this teacher.

Actually I don't blame the teacher for pressing charges. A student just stabbed a teacher in the face and head by me. I would take any threat seriously. Kids seem more inclined to violence now. There should be repercussions..

If he's expelled from that school, he can get in another (probably a BD school). Or home schooling...

Violent crime commited by youths have been decreasing for some time now. Please refer to the articles posted about the non link between violent acts and violent video games. Although, if the economy goes south for long enough, that trend might very well reverse.

I wasn't making a connection between multimedia and violence. I'm talking violence in schools. Are violent acts in schools decreasing? I don't remember (and neither do my parents nor relatives) such a large number of violent acts in schools from my time. They are much greater now than before. That's why schools by us now have security guards when they didn't before. These violent acts unfortunately are not isolated incidents.

As the product of white flight, I can't say that I've personally experienced any significant level of violence during my schooling. Methinks that teachers at suburban schools probably have the luxury of brushing off perceived threats as the product of whining, inarticulate but wholly undangerous students.

It seems to me that there is a fairly wide gap between, "Ohmygod I wish Mr. Smith would die" and "I wouldn't mourn Mr. Smith if he were killed tommorow with a .22 as he gets out of his vehicle."

Yeah. There's a gap. Kids say dumb shit all the time. But when do you know what should be taken seriously.

Dylan Kliebold and Eric Harris were in suburbia, too.

When a dude's gettin bullied and shoots up your school
And they blame it on Marilyn - and the heroin
Where were the parents at?
And look at where it's at
Middle America
Now it's a tragedy
Now it's so sad to see
An upper class city having this happening...


This is bigger than RM. When they start talking about pressing charges and expulsion of a 13 year-old, you gotta get a lawyer.

Woot!!

I was right!!

Hi. Thanks for the advice, all. And to clarify, they are seeking legal counsel but I was looking for outside opinions.

sorry, PD has already been drafted

lawyers cost money. if there was a doubt in your mind, might as well get free advice on RM first