November 06, 2005

Newark, NJ - The American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey announcedtoday the finalization of a settlement between Oceanport School District andRyan Dwyer, the then 8th-grade student who was improperly punished bydistrict administrators for creating a website forum that includedstatements critical of his school. In the settlement, the Oceanport SchoolDistrict apologized, acknowledged that Ryan did nothing wrong and should nothave been punished, and agreed to pay $117,500 in damages and attorneysfees. The settlement followed a decision on April 3, 2005, in which the U.S.District Court found Oceanport school officials liable for violating Ryan'sfree speech rights.

"While my parents and I are happy the case is resolved, most importantly,I'm hopeful this will help ensure that free speech rights of students aren'ttrampled on again in the future," said Ryan Dwyer, now an 11th grader. "Butit is a shame that in our free country, school administrators actuallythought that they could punish students like me just because they didn'tlike what we had to say or that we had a place to say it."

Ryan Dwyer created a website in April 2003 that contained criticisms of hisschool, Maple Place. He created and maintained the website on his own timefrom his home computer. The site contained a "Guest Book" in which visitorsto the site could register comments about the site or about the school. Ryanvoluntarily included a statement on the Guest Book web page that no postingshould contain profanity or threats. Nevertheless, after school officialsdiscovered the site, they suspended Ryan for a week, banned him from playingon the baseball team for a month, and did not allow him to go on theeighth-grade class trip. They also would not permit him to take HonorsEnglish and Honors Algebra placement tests that were being administered inanother school district during his suspension, and did not announce hisaward for a high SAT score when similar awards were announced.

The ACLU-NJ asserted that the school district's actions violated the Ryan'sright to free speech and expression as guaranteed by the First Amendment tothe United States Constitution and by Article I, Paragraphs 1 and 6 of theNew Jersey Constitution.

"The school district has never - to this day - explained to us what rule orpolicy our son violated," said Kevin Dwyer, Ryan's father. The schoolofficials did identify particular statements written in the Guest Book byother students that they found offensive. However, despite the fact thatRyan himself made no offensive or threatening remarks and repeatedly warnedothers from so doing, he received far greater punishment than the studentswho wrote the offensive remarks.

"Our constitution and laws protect webmasters from being held liable forstatements made on their sites over which they maintain no editorialcontrol," explained ACLU-NJ cooperating attorney Grayson Barber, wholitigated the case. "Our schools should encourage debate and politicalengagement rather than punishing students who provide a forum for freeexpression," she added.

In its decision of April 3, 2005, the court noted that "the comments made byother individuals in the Guestbook are not attributable to Ryan as creatorof the website" and that the school district presented no evidence thatRyan's own comments were either threatening or created a substantialdisruption of the operation of the school.

Nationwide, the ACLU has successfully represented numerous students whoreceived punishment for materials they posted on the web on their own time,from home.

The lawsuit was captioned Dwyer v. Oceanport School District, et al.