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For Immediate Release
November 6, 2005
Newark, NJ - The American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey announced
today the finalization of a settlement between Oceanport School District and
Ryan Dwyer, the then 8th-grade student who was improperly punished by
district administrators for creating a website forum that included
statements critical of his school. In the settlement, the Oceanport School
District apologized, acknowledged that Ryan did nothing wrong and should not
have been punished, and agreed to pay $117,500 in damages and attorneys
fees. The settlement followed a decision on April 3, 2005, in which the U.S.
District Court found Oceanport school officials liable for violating Ryan's
free 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't
trampled on again in the future," said Ryan Dwyer, now an 11th grader. "But
it is a shame that in our free country, school administrators actually
thought that they could punish students like me just because they didn't
like 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 his
school, Maple Place. He created and maintained the website on his own time
from his home computer. The site contained a "Guest Book" in which visitors
to the site could register comments about the site or about the school. Ryan
voluntarily included a statement on the Guest Book web page that no posting
should contain profanity or threats. Nevertheless, after school officials
discovered the site, they suspended Ryan for a week, banned him from playing
on the baseball team for a month, and did not allow him to go on the
eighth-grade class trip. They also would not permit him to take Honors
English and Honors Algebra placement tests that were being administered in
another school district during his suspension, and did not announce his
award for a high SAT score when similar awards were announced.
The ACLU-NJ asserted that the school district's actions violated the Ryan's
right to free speech and expression as guaranteed by the First Amendment to
the United States Constitution and by Article I, Paragraphs 1 and 6 of the
New Jersey Constitution.
"The school district has never - to this day - explained to us what rule or
policy our son violated," said Kevin Dwyer, Ryan's father. The school
officials did identify particular statements written in the Guest Book by
other students that they found offensive. However, despite the fact that
Ryan himself made no offensive or threatening remarks and repeatedly warned
others from so doing, he received far greater punishment than the students
who wrote the offensive remarks.
"Our constitution and laws protect webmasters from being held liable for
statements made on their sites over which they maintain no editorial
control," explained ACLU-NJ cooperating attorney Grayson Barber, who
litigated the case. "Our schools should encourage debate and political
engagement rather than punishing students who provide a forum for free
expression," she added.
In its decision of April 3, 2005, the court noted that "the comments made by
other individuals in the Guestbook are not attributable to Ryan as creator
of the website" and that the school district presented no evidence that
Ryan's own comments were either threatening or created a substantial
disruption of the operation of the school.
Nationwide, the ACLU has successfully represented numerous students who
received 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.
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