Wisconsin High School Suspends Student for Criticizing New Speech Policy on Twitter
Thin-skinned bureaucrats strike again.
Star student-athlete April Gehl isn't a fan of the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association's new sportsmanship guidelines, which prohibit teens from cheering inoffensive things like "air ball," and "we can't hear you" at games. Gehl tweeted, "EAT SHIT WIAA" along with a screenshot of the stipulations.
The thin-skinned bureaucrats at the WIAA didn't like being called out by a teen girl, so they instructed the athletic director at Gehl's high school to "please take care of it." Gehl was eventually suspended from her basketball team for five games. According to postcrescent.com:
"I couldn't believe it," Gehl said. "I was like, 'Really? For tweeting my opinion?' I thought it was ridiculous."
Gehl's tweet, which contained profanity directed toward the WIAA, was her off-the-cuff response to a WIAA email that took students to task for an increasing number of student-section chants at sporting events that mock the opposing team or school. …
According to Jill Gehl, that school policy includes a section on inappropriate language, which her daughter was ultimately punished for.
Being part of the basketball team is ostensibly a privilege, rather than a right, and the school has wide latitude to deprive certain privileges to students who act out. Even so, punishing Gehl for expressing a colorful opinion about a government policy on social media smacks of censorship. Certainly, it's wrong to teach students that they have no right to complain about state-imposed restrictions on their speech rights.