Student Faces Criminal Charges For Teacher Jokes

May 16, 2006, WSB-TV - Channel 2 - Atlanta

HENRY COUNTY, Ga. -- A Henry County high school student is facing criminal charges after posting comments about his teacher on the Web site, MySpace.com, reported WSB-TV in Atlanta.

The teacher has filed defamation of character charges against the student, Alex Davis, 15.

More and more, the very concept of freedom of speech is becoming a joke. The courts have created a situation where teachers are powerless to respond to real threats of violence. Students who have threatened teachers, and even attacked them, are ordered back into the classroom. Teachers are thus at the mercy of anyone who is prepared to harm them. Our ignorant judges act like they are not therefore responsible for the level of violence in our schools.

Teachers are justifiably resentful of this situation. Smart parents are also, as they know that their children cannot learn in an environment where the teacher has no real power to maintain discipline.

The consequence is this situation. It is easy to say the teacher over reacted, but unless you know how the student acted in the classroom, you can't really say. Children are smart enough that they can imply things. If this boy is smart, he may well have been using his court granted "power" to intimidate in the past. In which case I wish the teacher had some useful recourse.

However what we are seeing here is the consequence of an out of control judiciary. Their incompetent rulings in previous cases of real violence now leaves the teacher with little recourse except to ask for freedom of speech to be curtailed.

I don't blame either the student or the teacher for the insanity of this situation. I blame our corrupt judges.