Two years ago, the Oregonian reports, School District representatives from Beaverton, Oregon discovered a personal web site designed by one Carlson Muss--a self-described "Sexy (and available) Man" aged thirteen, and a student at the Highland Park Middle School.
The officials were not pleased with the web site's content. Muss, inter alia, threatened with death anyone who dared to disrespect him. "For one," he wrote on the site, "if you don't give me respect, death to you and your children and your childrens children." Muss followed the threat with a list of eight students who would "live another week." He also insulted Canadians, lesbians, albino florists, classmates and teachers.
Muss' attorney claims that the 13 yr old was just kidding, but school officials weren't amused, and told Muss to pack his bags and leave school--for good. Muss, in the prime of his youth, was expelled from the Highland Park Middle School.
It is not clear where the site was hosted--i.e., school or off-campus server. If off-campus, however, then Muss' threats were not expressed on the school's property, which calls into question the institution's right to expel the boy for speech which, technically, he uttered outside of school altogether. Would school officials have the right to expel Muss if they'd overheard him screaming similar threats at a supermarket?
Muss, at any rate, has, with the ACLU's support, filed a lawsuit in federal court, and is seeking $101,800 in damages--in part for the violation of his First Amendment rights.