H.S. Senior Tweets F-word from Home; School’s Response: Get the F**k Out

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In an outrageous misunderstanding of students’ off-campus free speech rights, an Indiana school district expelled a high school senior just three months shy of his graduation for tweeting an F-bomb from home at 2:30 AM.

Austin Carroll says that he sent the offending F-bomb tweet from home, from his own computer. He concedes that he agrees with the district that his tweet was inappropriate, but says he “just did it to be funny.” The Garrett-Keyser-Butler Community School District (the ‘District’) was not amused, claiming that he tweeted from school.

The school says that it reportedly learned about Austin’s tweet when he was online in school.

Even if the tweet was made off campus, it still doesn’t appear to have violated the school district’s “Responsible Use Policy” (the ‘Policy’) that is largely focused on integrating technology into classroom instruction, and making students pay for repairing damaged school notebooks and iPads (read it below).

Here is the District’s Policy:

Responsible Use Policy: Garrett-Keyser-Butler Community School District
A strong argument can be made that he didn’t violate the Policy:

  • He wasn’t plagiarizing someone else’s work to violate the district’s “Act with Integrity” guideline.
  • He didn’t “flame, bully, harass or stalk other people” in violation of the district’s “Respect Others” guideline.
  • He didn’t violate anyone’s intellectual property rights by tweeting an F-bomb (the authors of the acclaimed “Go the F**k to Sleep” book have not filed suit yet).
  • Carroll didn’t visit any Web “sites that are degrading, pornographic, racist, or inappropriate.
  • He wasn’t publishing a schedule of his activities or contact information; and
  • He didn’t “post personal information about [his] life and experiences” online.

According to Austin: “I don’t think that the school should be looking at [my tweet], because its my own personal [Twitter] account, and it’s not of their business.”

He argues that, “I shouldn’t be getting in trouble for stuff that I did on my own time, on my own computer.”

Gee, that makes plenty of sense.

It is ironic how the District that claims to be preparing “high school graduates…to use multiple technologies upon entrance into the work force and/or higher education,” yet forbids students from “post[ing] personal information about [their] life and experiences” online.

The District’s Policy claims to teach students how to use “collaborative devices and applications” like “such as smart phones and cell phones, wikis, multiuser virtual environments, games and social networks.” How can it do that with such a contradictory Policy in place?

The brouhaha isn’t over, as this video makes clear. Fellow students protested Austin’s ouster, prompting the District to call in local police.

Austin will still graduate, however, but he is now reportedly attending an alternative school.

What do you think about the graduating high school student’s tweet and the District’s decision to expel him?



4 responses to “H.S. Senior Tweets F-word from Home; School’s Response: Get the F**k Out”

  1. Clayton Blackwell says:

    Once again the school has violated the privacy of the student. The school has NO (ABSOLUTELY NO!) jurisdiction over a student off school property.

  2. Michael Giangiulio says:

    That is absolutely ridiculous!! The school district has no right whatsoever to expel a student for what they say or do on their own time. And they especially do not have the right to expel him for typing a curse word on his own private twitter account, that he made on his own computer at his home. In this instance, the district CLEARLY overstepped their bounds.

  3. ZT says:

    He should sue. Even if the school reverses the decision, this is still going to cause a disruption that will hurt his chances of getting into college or getting a good financial aid offer, depending on whether he’s already been accepted, is on any wait lists, and/or whether the acceptances are binding.

  4. Emmett Gulley says:

    This is outrageous!!! a student does something on his own computer and he gets expelled??? what the hell is wrong with this country????