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New Orleans, Louisiana- Student Lost Suit on Drawing-Related Expulsion
January 10, 2005
PEN USA’s First Amendment Action Committee denounces the actions of East Ascension High School toward a student expelled for drawing a picture in his own home. The drawing depicted the school surrounded by fire and guns, torches and missiles. In March 2001, Adam Porter was expelled after the picture was brought to another school by his younger brother. Adam Porter did not show the drawing to anyone, nor use it as a threat. However, he was charged with “terrorizing” and expelled.
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Porter’s attorney, Dan Scheuermann, calls the expulsion “completely unreasonable.” However, last month a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said former East Ascension principal Conrad Braud acted reasonably in expelling the student. According to Scheuermann, this has “devastating results” for students in the circuit court’s jurisdiction, which includes Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. It sets the precedent that school officials can regulate and discipline student citizens for the content of speech created in the privacy of their own home, if the situation is “unique.”
“Adam never intentionally directed his drawing into the stream of public circulation nor did he target it for distribution to students at EAHS. He did not publish it in any type of newspaper or on the Internet, nor did he expect it to go into circulation or to make its way into the hands of persons outside of his home,” Scheuermann wrote in asking the courts to rehear the case.
“It was completely unreasonable for a school administrator to exercise his power beyond the confines of the schoolyard and reach into the private residence of another citizen simply because that citizen happened to be a student at his school. It is clearly established that citizens have the freedom to unfettered speech within the privacy of their own homes.”
Adam Porter has received his General Education Development certificate and moved on with his life. However, the effect of this ruling against him - limiting his right to express himself in his own home - is a contradiction to the protections of the First Amendment. For this reason, PEN USA hopes the courts will listen to this case again, considering Porter’s freedom of expression and the rights of all students in their jurisdiction.