School District Settles in ACLU Teen Rapper Lawsuit
For immediate release: November 23, 2005
PITTSBURGH- The Riverside Beaver School District agreed on Monday evening to settle a federal lawsuit with ninth-grade-student, Anthony Latour, and his parents, John and Denise Latour, of Ellwood City, Pennsylvania over the teen rapper’s songs. In addition to a $90,000 financial settlement, the school district agreed to amend its policy regarding the circumstances under which it can exclude students from school because of their speech and to provide a letter to the Latour family which includes a statement acknowledging that “Anthony Latour has not threatened the school or students by way of his songs.”
On August 24, U.S. District Chief Judge Donetta Ambrose issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting the Riverside Beaver School District from expelling Anthony because of his rap music songs. Based on evidence presented at a hearing, the court concluded that the Latours were likely to prevail in the case because Anthony’s songs, while violent, did not amount to “true threats” and were, therefore, protected by the First Amendment. The court found that the school district’s argument was “weakened” by the fact that they took no steps such as searching the boy’s locker, talking to his parents, or referring Anthony to a counselor. Finally, the court ruled that the school failed to present any evidence that Anthony’s songs caused a disruption in the school day, which the school must show to justify punishing a student for speech.
Kim Watterson, a Pittsburgh-based lawyer from the international law firm Reed Smith who handled the case on a pro bono basis, said that she was pleased with the settlement: “In August, the court reaffirmed the basic constitutional principle that words by themselves rarely can justify censorship, as well as the principle that school students have speech rights protected by the First Amendment,” said Watterson.
In praising the agreement as a victory for students’ rights, Watterson added, “The settlement not only resolves the Latours' dispute with the school district, but also results in important changes to the school policy, ensuring that Riverside’s students’ speech rights will be protected – especially when they are in their own homes. Although the courts have given school officials authority to regulate and punish students' expression while they are in school, teachers and administrators need to recognize that the First Amendment limits their authority to play parent when the students are home.”
The Latour lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh after the school district expelled Anthony from school for the balance of the last school year and this year. School officials objected to music written by Anthony, including a two-year-old song responding to a classmate who had taunted him, a song written last fall describing a school shooting, and a rap challenge to another student who had agreed to the verbal and musical joust.
Watterson and Witold “Vic” Walczak, ACLU-PA Legal Director were the lawyers for the Latour family in the case, Latour v. Riverside Beaver School District.
A statement from the Latour family follows.
Statement of the Latour Family
November 23, 2005
On behalf of Anthony, Denise and myself, I would like to express our sincere gratitude to Kim Watterson and Vic Walczak for navigating our family through a very unexpected tumultuous time in our lives. A wise man once said, believe half of what you see and nothing of what you hear. During the time of the events that led up to Anthony's expulsion through the time it has taken to vindicate him, the process has resulted in a lot of heartache and frustration for the families that were involved in this matter. This was very unfortunate. This dispute arose from two able-bodied teenagers taunting one another and two young rappers engaging in a lyrical contest. In our generation, this behavior took place on the playground, where parents were not around to hear. We are now living in the age of the Internet, the new playground of our children, where parents and educators have access to these communications. Before school administrators jumped to any conclusions, everyone involved should have been invited to sit down and discuss the situation. The parents should have been given the opportunity to solve the problem, before law enforcement was called in. I was raised with the philosophy that children should learn to fight their own battles, and have practiced that with my own children. That is how they learn, and is part of the growing process. This is not to say that a parent should not keep a careful eye out to make sure their children do not go over the line. It is just as important that those entrusted with our children's education do not go over the line either by overreacting before all the facts have been established in context. I have yet to have been placed in a situation where negative results have stemmed from there being too much communication. The key word here is communication.
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