Pennsylvania school wrongly suspended teen for e-mail, federal judge rules

By The Associated Press

03.26.01

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PITTSBURGH — A suburban school district violated a student's free speech-rights by suspending him for an e-mail he sent from home that disparaged an administrator, a federal judge ruled late last week.

U.S. District Judge Donald Ziegler scheduled a hearing for April 20, when attorneys for student Zachariah Paul of Murrysville, and his mother, Joanne Killion, can ask for damages and court costs from the Franklin Regional School District.

"This decision should provide legal cover to those students who criticize and satirize school officials on home Web pages" and in private e-mails, said Witold Walczak, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney who filed the lawsuit.

The judge ruled that the school did not have a right to discipline Paul — even though the 1999 e-mail contained "lewd" and "boorish" comments about an administrator — because the e-mail was distributed off school grounds.

According to Ziegler's March 23 opinion, Paul was a junior at Franklin Regional High School, about 15 miles east of Pittsburgh, when he e-mailed a "Top Ten" list about then athletic director Robert Bozzuto to other students. The list lampooned Bozzuto's weight and made disparaging remarks about his sex life.

Paul had distributed similar lists on school grounds in the past — including one labeling a school librarian a "Book Nazi" — and had been warned of discipline if it occurred again.

Paul created the list about Bozzuto because he did not like some rules imposed on the school's track team, but he sent it only to friends from his home computers to theirs. Paul was suspended after another student copied the list and distributed it at the school without his knowledge, the ruling said.

Paul and his mother sued, and eight days into a 10-day suspension he was allowed to return to school under a consent agreement. Under the agreement, Paul dropped his suit against all parties but the school district — and the district agreed to pay any damages a judge might award.

Bozzuto did not immediately return a call to his home March 23. The district's attorney, William Andrews, also did not return a phone message.

The district had argued the suspension was proper because Paul's e-mail was disruptive to school life, but Ziegler said the district didn't prove that. Had the e-mail been threatening or violent, Ziegler ruled, the school district could have taken action.

Walczak agreed.

"This opinion does not in any way undermine the ability of school officials to address threats," he said.

Killion was pleased with the decision, but declined to relay a message to her son who is now a college student in California.

"It's a constitutional right. That's why I brought my son here 11 years ago from Singapore," Killion said. "For the school to do this to my son is wrong."

Last April, Ziegler rejected the district's request for access to the names of the students who received or distributed Paul's e-mail.