Fraud Suspension

[Jim Szujewski]

What is the name of your state? Illinois
My friend has been given the suspension of 3 days for the act of "severe fraud"
What happened:
A teacher at the school has a yahoogroup for his students. My friend wrote an email to a student in the group which contained profanity. The teachers name is "Mr Newport" but he insists on his students calling him "papa newp".... My friend signed the email -papa newp-... The school claims that this is severe fraud.
Is this appealable?
Remember it happened over the internet outside of school.
Does the teacher have rights to the name "papa newp"?
Is this even fraud?

Any info to help appeal this will help alot.. Thanks everyone.

 

[JETX]

1) What the school does to someone else due to their conduct is none of YOUR business.
2) The school presumably decided it was sufficient conduct to warrant the suspension. They're right.

 

[Jim Szujewski]

First of all I posted that for a friend im not trying to appeal his suspension myself. Im merely trying to get him information for it. I thought I would try here.
I just do not see how the school can punish him for something outside of school that is not affiliated with the school district in any means.
And the only reason they suspended him was because he signed the email with "papa newp" but no one has legal rights to that name?

 

[stomperx]

Jim:
you will not get advice here. on this forum, you will be told that all kids are mental cases that are crying out desperatly for help, and that if you do not get that help, you are a failure as a parent.
the posters on this forum seem to believe that the schools do no wrong, they are 100% right in every scenario. they seem to believe that no good kid ever screws up, and that the only kid that makes a mistake has major behavior issues.
best advice to you is to go somewhere else for your advice. do a search for the SCLU (i believe) and contact the aclu as well. they deal with these cases all the time. your friend has more rights than this board wants you to believe.
i believe this board is used mainly by teachers etc, and they immediately jump to the schools defense, and believe that the school never crosses the line in regards to how the school treats kids.

 

[quincy]

Jim -
I suggest you read stomperx's post "quick help needed" under Education Law, and come to your own conclusions. She did not get the advice she wanted, apparently, from anyone in the school system or from anyone here. I think you will see why.

In the situation you describe, your friend may have violated Illinois law by impersonating Mr. Newport on his educational website for students. Under "cyberstalking" laws in Illinois, impersonating the "victim" by sending lewd emails in his name can lead to a felony charge (although your friend's single email would not, more than likely, be enough to qualify it as a felony) or, more likely, harassment charges (a Class B misdemeanor). Defamation and invasion of privacy charges could conceiveably be brought, as well.

Mr. Newport can choose to bring civil actions for any of these against your friend, if he wants to go to the time and expense of doing so. He would not necessarily win such suits, but that does not prevent him from bringing them, and they will be just as costly and as time-consuming for your friend, as he finds himself defending against the charges.

Also, since Mr. Newport's website was designed by a teacher for the students in his class, your friend could also have violated school policy. Most schools will have policies in place where students are not allowed to post inappropriate content - I am thinking that "papa newp" probably had such a policy in place for his students. This is how the school gets involved in an out-of-school activity - it is part of the classroom.

In Connecticutt, under state law, a 13 year old was charged with impersonation for creating a MySpace page where he pretended to be a teacher. A principal in Texas sued two students and their parents for defamation and invasion of privacy, over a fake profile created by the students (he was awarded $500,000 in damages). There are numerous other examples.

Many believe that posting on the Internet means you can post whatever you want. The lawsuits that are being filed daily against posters demonstrate clearly, however, that that is not the case. Freedom of speech exists on the Internet, but so do the laws that limit this freedom.

I think your friend's 3 day suspension is reasonable, under the circumstances.