Teacher arrested for pro-Columbine blog post

Source: CNN

Bloggers and free speech advocates are calling on prosecutors not to file charges against a teacher arrested for allegedly posting an anonymous comment online praising the Columbine shooters.

Some were disturbed by the post that police say James Buss left on a conservative blog, but other observers said it was a sarcastic attempt to discredit critics of education spending.

The suburban Milwaukee high school chemistry teacher was arrested last week for the November 16 comment left on www.bootsandsabers.com, a blog on Wisconsin politics. The comment, left under the name "Observer," came during a discussion over teacher salaries, after some writers complained teachers were underworked and overpaid.

Buss, a former president of the teacher's union, allegedly wrote that teacher salaries made him sick because they are lazy and work only five hours a day. He praised the teen gunmen who killed 12 students and a teacher before committing suicide in the April 1999 attack at Columbine High School.

"They knew how to deal with the overpaid teacher union thugs. One shot at a time!" he wrote, adding they should be remembered as heroes.



Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/law/12/04/blog.arrest.ap/index.html

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If he was being sarcastic he sure missed the mark! But this sure doesn't warrant arrest IMHO and they are violating his free speech rights!

I'm just about to leave school now 12 hours after I got here. Good thing I love this job, because the salary sure as hell isn't what's keeping me here.

To me it sounds like Mr. Buss needs a psychiatric evaluation. :grr:

Some of the other teachers think he was being tongue-in-cheek mocking the freeper types on that website. Sure didn't make it clear enough if he was!

for summer recess? I understand your Salary is based upon twelve months. :shrug:

months: unemployment

"If you look at all the factors in this case, it's pretty clear it would be a mistake to charge," said Larry Dupuis, legal director of The American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin. "At worst, it was somebody expressing admiration for somebody who did something reprehensible. But the more reasonable explanation is this is somebody who is trying to mock the conservative view of teacher salaries."

Police Capt. Toby Netko defended the arrest. He said the teacher who complained was disturbed by the reference to "one shot at a time" and other educators agreed it was a threat.

"What happens when you say 'bomb' in an airport? That's free speech, isn't it?" he said. "And people are taken into custody for that all the time."

Donald Downs, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor and expert in free speech, said that "all sorts of unsavory, controversial speech" are protected by the First Amendment.

"It has to be intended to incite violence" to be illegal, Downs said. "If it's tongue-in-cheek, there's virtually no way they can claim that."


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I do not however hold his opinion. I'll take it as stated, even though it likely was mocking the republicans.

I can understand them wanting to investigate the situation, but if no direct threat was being made, then I don't see where they have standing to file charges.

I am sure there is an entire group dedicated to finding just the perfect cases (i.e., heinous to the majority) to slap people down in. Throw them in jail. Maybe disappear a few. Get all the bloggers to stand down, worry about what they type, etc.

It will work, too.

if he can be punished for this, then I had better tone down some of my '5 in the noggin' comments (ie rightwingers would think holier thoughts if they got john gibson's prescribed '5' in the noggin...
then again, this is georgebushamerka

that shit will get you arrested -- and it fuckin well should.

free speech -- like anything else has limits -- and it should.

advocating shooting teachers -- especially in columbine type reference is beyond the fuckin pale.

man -- sometimes DU sports some of the craziest shit -

you were unable to say for sure if was being sarcastic.

it's a problem with the internet -- no inflection.

however -- if you cannot tell{and you couldn't} apprehending him and finding out is absolutely appropriate.

... right wing mouthpieces, i.e. Weiner, Coulter and others have said MUCH worse than this, when do THEY get arrested?

This is utter bullshit.

Police Capt. Toby Netko defended the arrest. He said the teacher who complained was disturbed by the reference to "one shot at a time" and other educators agreed it was a threat.

"What happens when you say 'bomb' in an airport? That's free speech, isn't it?" he said. "And people are taken into custody for that all the time."

Donald Downs, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor and expert in free speech, said that "all sorts of unsavory, controversial speech" are protected by the First Amendment.

"It has to be intended to incite violence" to be illegal, Downs said. "If it's tongue-in-cheek, there's virtually no way they can claim that."

Downs added, however, that the school district might have legal grounds to discipline Buss. The teacher has been placed on paid administrative leave while his school district considers what action to take.

.... everyone is responsible for the feelings of others? "They" saw it as a threat?

Ohhhh.... what you say makes me feel threatened. You need to be arrested. What a bunch of quivering pussies this country is becoming.

...

I sure hope he gets raped in prison.

I am a mother with a son in prison for non-violent drug related offenses. I find your remark disgusting.

An example, perhaps, of how satire can be misconstrued.

Perhaps not the best thought-out parody, or every teacher in the world, but parody nonetheless.

Overpaid teachers working five hours a day? To me, that guy is like a teacher's Borat.

I wouldn't post stupid shit like that, granted, but only because my administration has mad me a paranoid freak.

apprehending and holding him until it's cleared up is the correct thing to do.

:sarcasm:

:rofl:

All kidding aside, I make a good salary as a university prof-- not nearly as bad as most K-12 teachers in public schools. On the other hand, I suspect the majority of folks who complain about teachers being underworked and overpaid would not last a week in teaching jobs, mine included.

I don't know if his arrest was appropriate, but this incident was worth investigating.

1st Amendment still applies, I'm afraid.

If he made some specific threats then that would be a valid comparison.

.. then there are thousands who should be arrested. Fact is, there was no exhortation to violence, merely approval.

That's free speech. What the FUCK is happening to America?

How tragic for what once was considered "the land of the free and the home of the brave" without irony. This controversial anonymous posting was so obviously satire to any truly educated person who is not humor impaired. That anyone here on DU would castigate or condemn someone who cuts right through the B.S. to the hypocrisy endemic in the so-called "education system" in the USA saddens me immensely.

The young people and youth have been the victims of a system which now has no interest in actually teaching most people much more than how to uncritically follow orders and leaders while producing like ants and consuming like millionaires. My generation was the last one to actually have a chance to learn how to think for ourselves and question the lies spewing from most media and all politicians. Our insights and reactions in the 1960s showed the ruling elite the error of allowing the masses to have functioning brains so here we are in 2007.

Teachers are arrested now for telling it like it is because the method used, satire, requires the reader to utilize their brain to comprehend the nuances and implications of what is read. Our schools are underfunded, teachers are constantly disrespected and underpaid, children are coming to school from dysfunctional families and broken homes, the curriculum has been dumbed down to allow constant grade advancement for all, schools themselves in many distressed (socially and economically) districts and elsewhere are dangerous and decrepit and many other sad realities.

As long as our priorities include criminal international military forays, maintaining the "military-Industrial" blood suckers and subsidizing corporations, the rich and super-rich, and destabilizing democratically elected progressive leaders we are surely doomed.

I don't believe that "they" hate us for our "freedoms", what an ironic joke!

It wasn't just the fascist government in the USA that makes me want to stay away form my home in California, it is the mentality of my fellow Amerikkkans. That the last two elections were close enough to steal is testament to how far we have fallen. So sad...

Because you know, he suggested that someone take out the State Dept. with a nuke.

When is he going to be brought to justice? Hmmmm?

But he shouldn't have been arrested. Spouting off like an asshole isn't against the law.

He sounds potentially dangerous.

sounds like he spent too much time inhaling fumes

That includes several of my own. Just practicing full disclosure here.

Nothing he said should have someone arrested.

It sounds sarcastic to me.

Dude was trying to make a point by being sarcastic- obviously.

And he said it anonymously, online. Who the HELL looked into his identity enough to put all this together and remove the contextual PROTECTION and objectivity such a statement retains with anonymity?

I read it as sarcasm too but - as I've found here often enough - it only
takes one ignorant reader to turn such a comment into a flame-fest.

> And he said it anonymously, online. Who the HELL looked into his identity
> enough to put all this together and remove the contextual PROTECTION and
> objectivity such a statement retains with anonymity?

I'd say there were two possibilities: Stupidity or malice.

Stupidity would explain the jumping to conclusions and, fed by anger & fear,
led to this follow-up. Alternatively, malice on the part of the authorities
to drive the message home that there is NO anonymity on the net - if they
*want* to find you, they *will* find you (and quickly).

:shrug:

If one uses Google to search for links including the words, "Anonymity" and "Internet" you will find many resources for sending anonymous Emails or making posts to list/serves or blogs.

If someone sophisticated was going to post something illegal they would, no doubt, take easy, effective steps to completely hide their true identity forever.