Student wins free-speech case

In light of a New Jersey private school's decision to ban student blogging a couple of weeks ago, this is interesting news: "A New Jersey school district will pay $117,500 to a student who was punished for creating a Web site that included critical statements about his middle school," the Associated Press reports. A federal judge ruled that the district had violated the student's free-speech rights. Two years ago, Ryan Dwyer, now in the 11th grade, created a Web site on his own time at home. "Comments posted in the site's 'guest book' section angered school officials, who suspended Dwyer for a week, benched him from playing on the baseball team for a month, and barred him from going on his class trip, among other discipline. The district's lawsuit said anti-Semitic remarks were posted on the site, which Dwyer denied writing." The American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey helped the Dwyers sue the district, which they say never told them what school policy was violated. This is not a public school, as opposed to the N.J. school that recently banned student blogging, so these cases are different on several levels, but the question of what free-speech rights students have in the Internet Age is definitely unresolved and will make for interesting discussion for some time to come.