Student Faces Criminal Charges For Teacher Jokes

[PARAGON]

Are you kidding me? He's still a kid. They defame other's character everyday. Sometimes justly and unjustly. School suspension has now become the replacement for discipline.

Yeah, the kid can learn a lesson. But he's being taught the wrong one. It's not defamation if no possible harm to one's character or reputation occurs. If derogatory remarks are so outlandish as to not be believable, then they do not amount to defamation.

Being the brunt of a joke does not amount to being defamed.

[f5fstop]

Agreed, kids to defame people everyday. However, they defamed a teacher on a public website. I'm not saying the kid should be forced to work his life to pay for a court judgment, in fact, since he is a minor, mom and dad will have to pay it (if awarded). I'm not even saying the guy should win any money, but I bet mommy and daddy will be more observant of what little Johnny posts on the web from this day forward.
It's one thing to imply to another kid that teacher ** is gay, but to imply this on a public website is, in my humble opinion, over the line.

[evldave]

I dunno. Where do you draw the line? If you've got a blog (which is essentially what myspace is), you can't voice your opinion? It's essentially restriction of free speech because someone (the teacher) doesn't like what they (the student) has to say.

From what I remember in my pre-law days (a long long time ago in a galaxy far away), you have to prove a tangible 'loss' as a result of this. Given that pretty much everyone who actually uses or knows anything about myspace knows its the world's biggest clusterf*ck of ideas/opinions, I can't see the teacher winning the suit.

Here's a good one for you: If the student had voiced his opinion to some friends at home, filmed it, then posted the video on the internet via google to another friend somewhere far away to view, would it also be justified to sue him? I think courts or the legislature are going to have a hard time distinguishing between the public/private/blog aspect of defamation/libel/slander soon...