Thursday, January 29, 2009

Another Tip Of The Hat For Senator Gary LeBeau In Free Speech Case ...


... And Related Comments ...

Authentic Connecticut Republican has left a new comment on your post "CtNewsJunkie: Senator Gary LeBeau Files Landmark F...":

This entire episode has been a travesty.

Even those that don't agree that the young lady in question has been treated terribly would undoubtedly agree that an enormous amount of time and money has been spent over nothing.

There is simply no up-side to the behavior of the school administration or the court.

Lebeau's bill makes total sense.

Considering the nonsense we normal see come out of our legislature; that alone is like a breath of fresh air.

The man deserves a tip of the hat!


Posted by Authentic Connecticut Republican to The Cool Justice Report at 5:22 AM


  • CtNewsJunkie: Senator Gary LeBeau Files Landmark Free Speech Bill


  • NBC TV30: LeBeau Takes Up Internet Free Speech Fight


  • Comments @ Channel 30:

    -- I'm 47 years old now. In my youth, administrators abused their positions on a regular basis and the kids had no control. I had a daughter and when she went through school, guess what ... administrators abused their positions on a regular basis and the kids had no control. They probably were douch bags and she has a right to say so without penalty. I'm sure glad I'm not involved with any of the self-important adults who have posted on this article.... preparation for the real world..... consequences. Sad to see people preach such robotic responses.

    -- I happen to agree with the senator, students do NOT check their rights at the door and too many times students are not given the respect they deserve as human beings. Students are constantly told when, where, and how they can walk, talk, eat, even use the restroom! This girl was an upstanding citizen, participating in student government and organizing fun activities for the students. She has every right to speak her mind when she feels that she has been wronged. What kind of lesson are we teaching our children - to sit back and let people walk all over them - no she had every right to speak her mind, this is the USA! If you think "douch bag" is a derogatory/ hate word... grow up this is 2009 and there are way worse things she could have called that D.B.!!

    -- A man who chooses security over freedom deserves neither....The Bill of Rights protects the people from the Government...period..that is why is was written and the first amendment does not protect popular speech or polite speech it protects all speech that is not intended to threaten or cause immediate danger...A man who chooses security over freedom deserves neither....The Bill of Rights protects the people from the Government...period..that is why is was written and the first amendment does not protect popular speech or polite speech it protects all speech that is not intended to threaten or cause immediate danger...


    --

    WATCH FOR THE TRIAL
    ON CIVIL RIGHTS VIOLATIONS
    Related To Suppression And Seizure
    Of Free Speech T-Shirts


    United States District Court
    for the District of Connecticut

    Case Name: Doninger v. Niehoff et al
    Case Number: 3:07-cv-1129

    Jury Selection set for 6/2/2009
    09:30 AM
    in Courtroom Four,
    141 Church Street, New Haven, CT
    before Judge Mark R. Kravitz

    Jury Trial set for 6/4/2009


    More Selected Web Postings:

    -- I haven't read about anyone, including Ms. Donniger and her attorneys, advocating for speech without consequences. The penalty was absurdly harsh and justified by a disruption that never existed. The punishment was an inappropriate, vindictive payback doled out by professional administrators who should have known better.

    -- good job girl -- you have the right to free speech- fight it all the way

    -- to all of those individuals who think ms doninger is some punk kid, please think again. she's not. read up on this entire case. find out WHO LIED in COURT, who didn't comply with the foia, who trampled on who's rights and who in fact really ARE d****e bags (hint, it's NOT ms doninger or her parents)to all of those individuals who think ms doninger is some punk kid, please think again. she's not. read up on this entire case. find out WHO LIED in COURT, who didn't comply with the foia, who trampled on who's rights and who in fact really ARE d****e bags (hint, it's NOT ms doninger or her parents)

    -- Hang in [there,] kid. You did no wrong. I will always believe that there are many more "douche bags" out there. "

    -- Interplay:

    ...this isn't really about freedom of speech...it never was.

    AND

    Close your eyes, repeat that three times and click your heels. Maybe when you open your eyes again it will be true. "


    -- It was too harsh

    I agree with Paul Bentley when he said the punishment for Avery Doninger was "heavy handed and harsh." No other student in Lewis Mills ever received a punishment that lasts a year for saying two words ("douche bag") when I was there. No one. They said a lot worst too. The difference is, they said it to teachers and not to a superintendent. Older people don’t understand that "douche bag" means "jerk" in modern times.

    A writer in Sound Off said that she found it curious that Paul Bentley "can critique a judge’s decision." Bentley is not a lawyer, she said. What does that mean? No one but a lawyer can have a legal opinion? We’re supposed to just go along with what the courts say and not question them because they’re the courts and wear a robe?

    What a stupid thing to say. Wasn’t it the courts that enforced segregation in this country? Wasn’t it the courts that backed the Nazis during the Holocaust? Wasn’t it the courts that went along for years with women not being given the vote? The courts are not perfect, they are like us. And when they rubber stamp a harsh punishment like Avery Doninger got, they’re wrong.

  • Bentley Letter


  • The Significance Of The Bentley Letter



  • -- Via blog,
    Standing On The Shoulders Of Giant Midgets



    I'm suddenly nostalgic for the days when I was young and my peers and I said all sorts of horrible and disrespectful things about teachers and faculty, sometimes on school campus and sometimes in front of the people we were talking about, and there wasn't anything they'd do about it. (I remember one incident when a girl in an English class made the teacher cry and flee the classroom; I should probably be sympathetic, but aside from the fact the teacher really was pretty awful, I also continue to believe, more than two decades later, that if you can't stand up to a fifteen-year-old you really have no business being a teacher. Sorry. Sure, noble profession, unappreciated, all that, got it, kind of agree--but come on, you let a dumb, pimply, adolescent jerk get to you? For fuck's sake, grow vertebrae.)

    I have trouble imagining a generation of American youth that didn't say bitchy and terrible things about their elders, especially when real or imagined insults and injuries are concerned. That bitch gave me an F! Mr. Blank is totally retarded. Someone ought to key that asshole's car--I know where he parks! I would be utterly unfazed if some time traveler returning to the golden early days of public education didn't come across a lurking gang of kids talking with all the apparent but vacuous seriousness of youth about removing the bolts from the wheels of Miss Exes' wagon one morning, calling her a flatulent cow and doing a sadistic impersonation of her voice reciting the multiplication tables.

    That's what kids do. But these days, hey, can't have bad manners and all this "cyberbullying."

    So I'm rooting for Ms. Doninger. Not because she was entitled to be school secretary. Not because I think her claim is one that is likely to have a remedy. And I have to admit that when I was her age, I harbored a special contempt for popular girls who did things like run for school office. (Participating was something akin to being a collaborator--except for drama, the theater department was totally cool. Ah, the sweet smell of teenage hypocrisy!) No, I'm rooting for Ms. Doninger because we are becoming thin-skinned, easily pricked, humorless fools with an absolute lack of perspective, and the schools seem to be ground zero for the sheepifying of America. Let's not have any disrespect or disobedience in this country founded by traitors and fart-joke-purveyors! Let's not say mean things about other people ever, or expect people to show some ability to take care of their own emotional well-being.

  • Standing On The Shoulders Of Giant Midgets


  • What They're Saying About Travesty Kravitz



  • Following is a Readers Digest version of the Doninger case:

    Avery Doninger, a volunteer in the Americorps national public service program, has a civil rights trial pending in New Haven U.S. District Court. [Among her duties on the job: helping hurricane victims in Texas.]

    Avery, a 2008 graduate of Lewis Mills High School in Burlington, CT, and her mother, Lauren Doninger, sued Principal Karissa Niehoff and Superintendent Paula Schwartz [now retired] after they removed Avery from the ballot for class secretary.

    Avery Doninger was among a group of four students who lobbied the community for support of an annual battle of the bands sponsored by the Student Council. The student council adviser suggested the students reach out to taxpayers and the students copied the adviser an on email to the community.

    Schwartz became very upset after taxpayers called her and she cancelled the event known as Jamfest. Doninger subsequently referred to administrators in a live journal blog as central office douche bags, and Schwartz's son found the posting while trolling the internet for his mother a couple weeks later. While Avery Doninger was banned from school office, another student who called Schwartz a dirty whore was given an award and lauded for citizenship.

    School officials suppressed the write-in vote in which Doninger was elected by a plurality. Schwartz refused to accept Doninger's apology for her choice of words. During an assembly, Niehoff banned free-speech and Team Avery t-shirts and seized at least one shirt.

    The Doningers have been seeking -- among other remedies -- an apology for civil rights violations and recognition of the write-in victory.

    New Haven U.S. District Judge Mark Kravitz denied a motion for a preliminary injunction [immediate relief] in August 2007. Based on errors in the record, Travesty Kravitz's injunction ruling was upheld by the U.S. Second Circuit in New York.

    Travesty Kravitz held a hearing in November 2008 on Doninger's request for a trial. He cut off discussion about various frauds - including false testimony - upon the court and ultimately ordered a trial on Jan. 15, 2009. But, he limited the scope of the trial to the narrow issue of the suppression and seizure of free speech t-shirts.

    On Jan. 22, 2009, Connecticut State Senator Gary LeBeau filed a landmark bill to protect student speech.

    On Jan. 23, 2009, Travesty Kravitz scheduled jury selection and a trial for civil rights violations related to the suppression and seizure of free speech t-shirts.


  • Court Docs Detailing Alleged Fraud By Niehoff, Schwartz, et al
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