If you think your school sucks, you better keep it to yourself.
Definitely don't start a Facebook page, because venting against teachers and classes has led to some serious legal trouble for a few high schoolers.
Nicholas Blacconiere's school, Salon Professional Academy of Elgin, is demanding $50,000 for emotional damage caused by defamatory comments posted on a Facebook page he created called “Tspa RobinHood," Chicago Tribune reports.
“What was said on that Internet site was a bunch of lies,” said Robert Wagner, the school’s attorney, according to the Tribune.
The page is private, therefore the exact message is not known, but the case is similar to a others popping up around the country.
If the Kane County Circuit Court agrees that the messages were defamatory, it could mean that other “My School Sucks” pages will be shut down.
Then the 195 fans in Tucker, Georgia, that signed up at “Tucker High School SUCKS!!!” will need to find another place to talk about how “the food sucks, the desks suck, even the teachers suck.” Same thing for the 128 fans of Arlington Heights’ “Thomas Middle School Sucks,” who received “an email from people at thomas that want to shut it down.”
Local
But it's not a cut-and-dried issue.
In 2007, a 10-day suspension against Justin Layshock was reversed by a Pennsylvannia federal court after it found the Myspace parody page the student created for his school was an expression of his freedom of speech. Could Tspa Robinhood be in the same category? Time will tell.
