Appeals Court Overturns Student's Suspension For Rap Song Criticizing School Employees

from the your-rights-end-where-our-thin-skin-begins dept

Back in 2010, Taylor Bell -- an aspiring rap artists and student at Itawamba High School in Mississippi -- heard from others students that two of the school's coaches were making inappropriate comments and sexual overtures towards female students. Realizing (correctly, it would seem) that the school's administrators would do little to address the situation, he recorded a rap song about the touchy-feely (but in a bad way) coaches while off on Christmas break and posted to Facebook.



Upon his return to school, he was suspended by school officials, who claimed the song "threatened, intimidated and harassed" the two coaches named in the track. They also claimed the track was a "disruption." This is contradicted by accounts of the disciplinary meeting, as recounted by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

At the disciplinary/due process hearing, no evidence was presented that the song had caused or had been forecasted to cause a material or substantial disruption to the school's work or discipline. In addition, there was no evidence presented indicating that any student or staff had listened to the song on the school campus, aside from the single instance when (Coach Michael) Wildmon had a student play the song for him on his cellphone in violation of school rules. Neither of the coaches named in the song attended or testified at the hearing, and no evidence was presented at the hearing that the coaches themselves perceived the song as an actual threat or disruption.

Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the School Board, there was no commotion, boisterous conduct, interruption of classes, or any lack of order, discipline and decorum at the school, as a result of Bell's posting of his song on the Internet… Indeed, the School Board's inability to point to any evidence in the record of a disruption directly undermines its argument and the district court's conclusion that the summary-judgment evidence supports a finding that a substantial disruption occurred or reasonably could have been forecasted.



At the preliminary injunction hearing, Wildmon explained that his students "seem[ed] to act normal" after the posting of the song, and Rainey testified that most of the talk amongst students had not been about Bell's song but rather about his suspension and transfer to alternative school. No evidence was offered that Bell or any other student listened to the song on campus, aside from the single instance when Wildmon had a student play the song for him on his cellphone.

The School Board's additional argument that Bell's rap song falls within the "true threat" exception to the First Amendment is likewise meritless. As explained infra, Bell's rap was not a plainspoken threat delivered directly, privately, or seriously to the coaches but, rather, was a form of music or art broadcast in a public media to critique the coaches' misconduct and also in furtherance of Bell's musical ambitions.



Moreover, Bell's rap was not an unconditional threat that Bell himself would physically harm the coaches; at most, the song amounted to a conditional warning to them of possible harm from the female students' family members if they continued to harass the young women. Finally, as evidenced by the reactions of the listeners themselves, there was no reasonable or objective ground for the coaches to fear that Bell personally would harm them.

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Despite this lack of evidence, Bell was suspended from the school and all extracurricular activities and forced to attend an alternative school for nine weeks. The lower court upheld this suspension, granting the school summary judgement and stating these actions did not violate Bell's free speech rights. The appeals court found otherwise, pointing to the lower court's clumsy application of the Tinker Test , a Supreme Court decision that considered where students' free speech rights end and "disruptive speech" begins. According to the appeals court, the school failed to provide evidence that Bell's rap song disrupted school operations.As for the school board's argument that Bell's song (which can be found in its entirety in the ruling, along with some entertaining footnotes) was a "true threat," the evidence presented by the school undermines this claim as well.Indeed, the "threat" was so "true" that officials allowed Bell to remain on campus until the end of the school day. He wasn't suspended until nearly a week later, following a weather-related school closure.This is what the school's thin skin has netted it after two years of courtroom battling: a judgment in favor of Bell, awarding him nominal damages, court costs, attorneys' fees and an order to expunge this suspension from his record. This court battle sprung out of a school's desire to view Bell's criticism as a threat. This behavior bears out Bell's assertion that bringing the coaches' misconduct to the attention of school officials would have gone nowhere. So, he addressed it in his own way, simultaneously working towards his goal of becoming a rap artist.To be sure, the song is vulgar (h/t Venkat Balasubramani ) and occasionally very ugly, but so are the accusations. The medium itself often indulges in profanity and violence for its own sake, but in certain situations, nothing else is quite as effective in getting the point across. Bell's track achieved its goal -- more awareness about certain coaches' activities. It also highlighted his school's inability to deal with criticism or respect its students' rights -- something that's far too common in schools across America. The rise of social media has given more students a platform for expression and school administrators are having a hard time adjusting to the new reality.

Filed Under: free speech, rap song, schools, taylor bell