Four students have been told they will not be allowed to return to school for the remainder of the academic year due to a video they made, a reenactment making fun of the police killing of George Floyd. In the 10-second video clip, one student can be seen laying on the ground with his hands behind his back when another teen, dressed up as a police officer, approaches him and places his knee on his neck. The student reenacting Floyd then shakes. The camera pans away, and the video comes to an end. This took place at White Knoll High School in Lexington, South Carolina, and the principal's name is Ted Daughtrey, with the Lexington County school superintendent, also making a statement that seemed to support the principal's response: "We strongly condemn the actions of these students. ... Racism, in any form, will not be tolerated by out students or staff and will be addressed immediately." So four students are not allowed to go back to school because they made a 10 second video of a news incident that they thought was funny and other people found offensive? The video was only seen because it was posted on an internet site called TikTok, which is mainly only seen and used on mobile phones. The 10-second video clip caused many to be outraged, reigniting the outrage many felt over the death of Floyd. Is it fair to punish these students for this, to suspend them from the school? Does that violate their rights? Is suspending them from the school until the end of the academic year excessive? The news article is from November 4, 2020, and the students are set to be suspended for the remainder of the remainder of the 2021-2022 school year, so that would be about 7 and a half months.
What happened to freedom of speech? Of course the punishment is excessive. I'm sure that the same students could have made a Tik Toc blurb ridiculing the crucifixion of Christ and all would have been OK but the chronically outraged and selectively offended disciples of St. Floyd must be appeased.
Yep! They still have “freedom of speech” and society has the freedom to hold their little racist arses accountable for promoting hate speech
Then they don't have freedom of speech. We don't say people have the freedom of theft or murder ...because its unlawful. These kids didn't break any laws.
Play stupid games... I think the valuable lesson in life these students have received will more than make up for any school missed.
Now they know the Constitution and Bill of Rights don't mean diddly-squat in the real world, these things could be avoided if that was taught starting in pre-kindergarten.....
Was it for sure supposed to be a mockery? Or was it just a reenactment. As far as the school suspension...that is unconstitutional. I think there has been a case similar to this already. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cn...a-cheerleader-in-school-free-speech-case.html
There have been many videos in poor taste showing the death of Presidents the videographers don't like. It's simply not illegal to be a lowlife unless laws are broken. We don't have hate speech laws here that are constitutional. Some leftist communities put them in place knowing they are unconstitutional but they have no clout.
Once we start pandering to the S.O.C.O.M.'s (Selectively Offended Chronically Outraged Minority) interpretation of "hate speech", we might as well start locking people up for "thought crimes" too and tear up the Bill of Rights. "Hate Speech" is a recently coined phrase that is so subjective and vague as to be completely meaningless. It is just another cobblestone in the road to totalitarianism. Even though what these kids did was in poor taste, our hard won and hard preserved freedoms are too valuable to be surrendered to the Al Sharptons of the world.
You don't even know what freedom of speech means do you? It means a person is able to express their opinion, regardless of how popular it may be, without fear of government persecution. Note the wording: 'government persecution'. So many repubs think that 'Freedom of speech' allows them to say whatever they want, wherever they want and they're protected but it ain't so.
Too bad the Founders didn't think through that "wording", since it's interpreted as "BUT everybody else can!".....so in MY mind may as well let the government in on the fun too, big whoop.
Naw.....it's about 20,000 New Jersey ballots being discovered in the Great Pyramid of Giza, titled "Raiders of The Lost Votes".
Public education is a government arm. Public colleges are government funded. The college thing is harder for me to agree with...but apparently courts see it that way so far.
And what is the Lexington County school board except a government agency that is persecuting the students for expressing their opinions via a Tic Tok blurb? So many selectively offended & chronically outraged thought police think that Freedom of Speech is only the freedom to engage in "woke speech".
