Mitchel Bonaccorso and his friends once paid a panhandler $50 to get a tattoo and videotaped it.

Another time they spoofed the ALS ice bucket challenge when his friends dumped a bucket of water filled with live lobsters on the 17-year-old's head at a Burlington mall.

Then there was the time they interviewed a 19-year-old Hamilton woman about her sexual exploits in explicit detail, and about her much vaunted social media presence.

Those videos garnered a little controversy online after they were posted last summer – but this month, they caught the attention of the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board.

He might be a jerk, but I don't know how that's the school's business. - Wayne Sumner, retired professor and freedom of expression advocate

The board suspended Bonaccorso for 10 days in his last year of school even though the videos have nothing to do with his school and weren't filmed on school property – something he says endangers his post-secondary hopes at his preferred university.

And because the school hasn't been able to produce a specific rule he broke, he says, the St. Mary Catholic Secondary School student thinks his right to free speech is being infringed upon.

"For me to be banned from my place of learning for 10 days in my grade 12 year is ridiculous," Bonaccorso told CBC News. "I feel very weak. I feel like because I'm 17 my words don't mean anything."

Videos 'injurious to the moral tone of the school'

According to his vice-principal, the videos are "injurious to the moral tone of the school," he says. The school has told him to take the videos down – something Bonaccorso vehemently refuses to do.

School officials did not immediately respond for requests for comment.

Pat Daly, chair of the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board, said he could only speak "very generally" about the reasons a student "might" be suspended.

"Clearly the principal thought it was appropriate to act in the way they have."

The provincial Ministry of Education says it can't speak about the specific details of this situation, because school boards are "responsible for developing their own suspension policies within the framework set out in the Education Act and ministry policies."

"The Education Act lists the activities for which a principal shall consider whether to suspend a student, and the decision on the length of a suspension is at the discretion of the principal," spokesperson Derek Luk said in an email.

Wayne Sumner is an expert in freedom of expression, and is a retired professor in the Centre for Ethics and Joint Centre for Bioethics at the University of Toronto. He said the school's response doesn't make any sense.

"My immediate reaction is what the hell does the school have to do with this?" Sumner said. "I just don't see why this warrants a jurisdictional response."

'I don't feel taken advantage of'

Bonaccorso's videos do push the boundaries of "good taste" – something he freely admits. The panhandler video in particular drew some venom online, as people say he took advantage of a person who needs help.

He points out though, that the man in the video named Mike was already covered in tattoos, and was more than happy to participate. In the video, Mike says he makes hundreds of dollars a day panhandling in Toronto.

"It was a good experience, I didn't feel taken advantage of," Mike said in a text message that Bonaccorso posted online. In the video interviewing the Hamilton woman about her sex life, Bonaccorso also comes off as condescending – but that doesn't really matter in this case, Sumner says.

"He might be a jerk, but I don't know how that's the school's business."

Bonaccorso's mom, Shari, is appealing the school's decision to suspend her son. "I don't agree with the language or the subject matter [in the videos], but my husband and I fail to see what this has to do with school."

"We feel the suspension is unjust."

adam.carter@cbc.ca | AdamCarterCBC