(5/19/99) The ACLU responds to the calls they have received from parents whose sons or daughters have been suspended or expelled from school for doing nothing but exercising their right to express themselves freely. Their press release mentions a Supreme Court case that recognized that students do not shed their First Amendment rights at the schoolhouse gate.
The press release also states, "True threats should not go ignored, but statements which are clearly hyperbole cannot constitute the basis for discipline. Whether a statement is a true threat depends on ‘whether a reasonable person would foresee that the statement would be interpreted by those whom the maker communicates the statement as a serious expression of intent to harm or assault.‘ Lovell v. Ponway Unified School District, 90 F.3d 367 (9th Cir. 996)."
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