Student suspended for posting random satire on YouTube A Canadian student has been suspended from school and had the police sicced on him due to satirical animations that he posted to YouTube. Jack Christie, a 12th-grade student at the Donald A. Wilson Secondary School in Whitby, Ontario, Canada, created the videos in his own time, off-campus. His animations in the Jack Christie …
So it took place outside the school. There is no connection with the school. But the school has jurisdiction.
So why again can likes of Twitter not be sued for contempt of court in USA over super injunctions again? Using this school logic of jurisdiction there should not be a problem.
Just makes you wonder if they have same sort views when it over bullying?
Ow please, South Park take the piss out of this school.
This is one of the few cases where something described as an Epic Fail really was epic. If they had hired someone to deliberately fail they couldn't have done better. An awesome spectacle of fucktardery. I really don't know what they were thinking and am genuinely impressed and amused.
This is so typical of mediocre administrators and petty useless managers or teachers that are incapable of doing their allotted job.
They show their authority by bullying or demeaning others, or hiding behind petty bureaucracy.
This is a distinctly average school
http://ontario.compareschoolrankings.org/secondary/Donald_A_Wilson_Secondary_School/Whitby/Report_Card.aspx
I suggest they concentrate on getting their grades up rather than punishing creativity, something the management is obviously lacking!
Resign, resign, resign!
It's not only average, the administration doesn't even have the excuse to fall back on that it has too many English learners (ESL - 1%) that many schools in California can use, yet the California schools are making progress. It appears that Wilson Secondary is barely maintaining it's ranking over the past several years.
The administrations response to this student's EXTRA-CURRICULAR activities reminds me of the Zero Tolerance (ZT) response of many US school adminstrators. A six year old boy suspended from school and the police called in because he drew PICTURES of guns. Another boy suspended because he had a 2" high plastic figurine of a soldier carrying a molded plastic gun (no opening in the barrel). The one that takes the cake though, is the actions of the principal when a teen girl was raped in the school restroom and the principal not only refused to call the police or send the girl to the hospital for an examination, he sent the boy home to change clothes. The girl was sent to the counselor's office after several hours, and the counselor IMMEDIATELY took her to the emergency room then called the police. Of course, the principal stonewalled the police, but the story got out, and the principal is now under investigation of charges which could lead to prison time for interfering with a crime scene, failure to report a crime, and other serious charges. My personal opinion on the case is the principal AND the boy should spend some serious time in prison/juvenile hall, and the principal and certain other staff members should lose their teaching credentials and barred from working with children.
FAIL, because the administration of both schools are abject failures at their job.
By chance, yesterday I was looking at "professional" animated marketing video production. It's expensive, and much of it is crap. Irrespective of the content, this guy clearly has skills that are in demand and that pay well. He should forget about school and set himself up doing this professionally for a couple of years, and save the cash for the rest of his education.
Does not exist in Canada. A lot of Canadians make the mistake of thinking so, since free speech in enshrined in the U.S. Constitution and huge amounts of US culture (if there is any) spills over into Canada. While freedom of speech is in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and recognized in international human rights law in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), it does not exist in the legal codes of Canada, Britain nor most (if not all) Eu countries.
I'm neither a Lawyer, nor Canadian, but the Charter of Rights and freedoms seems to cover this:
2. Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms:
(a) freedom of conscience and religion;
(b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication;
(c) freedom of peaceful assembly; and
(d) freedom of association.
Okay, so it doesnt say "Freedom of Speech" - but Surely this is implied in "Freedom of Expression".
http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/charter/page-1.html#anchorbo-ga:l_I-gb:s_1
Did anyone here hear about the G20 Thugs aka police who assaulted peaceful demonstrators in the Safe Demonstration area, and people who were standing around watching peaceful demonstrations? Yes, there were bad demonstrators dressed in black, but they were few and far between and certainly did not represent more than a tiny minority of those who were demonstrating. Cops were caught on film assaulting people and the other cops were "unable to identify them". Freedom of expression etc is fine as long as you don't piss off the authorities.
According to THIS article (http://www.durhamregion.com/news/whitby/article/178636), the videos were made for school, some were shown in school, and even submitted as part of class assignments.
Hardly the "nothing to do with school" we're led to believe.
Still, the school does seem to be making sure that more people view the videos than would have otherwise.
If I had Youtube at his age, I would have put all sorts of crap up there.
His cartoons aren't my thing, but he clearly has some talent.
Smart kids don't do too well in school. Because schools are more interested in teaching the dumb ones. It'd be nice if they could do both. Thankfully the kid's going to come out ahead in this.
The lad obviously has a talent, and now with their stupidity they have helped bring him world wide attention.
I hope he goes far. would be great to see him in 5 years time with a mainstream animated movie release, and this story coming up again making the school board look like total pricks
Seriously, in general no contract is valid if it is fundamentally unfair right? Even in Canada. This guy has some talent which could see him go far. Instead of nurturing it and maybe having an alumni go on to create the next "kids in the halls" they have made themselves a laughing stock worldwide. I don't think KITH actually caused any squished heads either :(
Epic fail from a bunch of pompous dinosaurs.
IIRC (and I may be mistaken), random drug tests of employees are illegal in Canada because the drug consumption may have occurred out of work hours, and what someone does outside of work is no business of the employer. Or to put it another way, an employer's mandate doesn't include enforcing laws in general. That's the coppers' job.
Moreover since marijuana is the most common drug tested for and medical marijuana is quasi-legal in Canada, puffing on a reefer after work may be nothing more than taking your medicine.
By analogy, it is none of the school board's business what this kid did outside school, and they may very well be abridging his right to freedom of speech. I'd love to see a law suit that takes the school board to the cleaners, *and* a complaint to the relevant Human Rights Commission to really tie them in knots. It would add piquancy if the suit was not only against the school board, but against the individuals on it personally.
If the school board has any gumption, the persons who instituted, aided, and abetted this nonsense will be moved to positions where they have no input whatsoever into student discipline.
Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord.
... Dayton View Academy, and of William Poole of zombie story fame. I.e. nothing will change, there will be no uprising.
Dayton View Academy still has a suspended schoolgirl who reported a sex act on a bus that can't attend her prom, and William Poole despite being cleared of all charges, got 2 years probation because he broke a condition of his bail whilst under charges that did not legally exist.
Forget everything you see here, and move along.
Kid decides instead of doing all the usual anti-social things teenagers get blamed for he makes, polished, popular videos and shares them with the world. The school should be applauding him, not punishing him. I hope they get sued. The fact that it's not to their taste is irrelevant (hint: it wasn't made for them, or given to them, or associated with them)
And AFAIK schools in the UK aren't legally in loco parentis, they are considered responsible for them, which actually makes things harder (i.e., in the event an accident it is there legal duty to ensure they have a way to contact the parents or those actually in loco parentis to make decisions)
A kid at school is not allowed to legitimately disseminate his creativity out of school hours.
Meanwhile, convicts play video games and broswe porn all day, paid for by tax payer money, because not letting them would be against their human rights.
And soon we'll be wondering "hmmm, something seems to have gone wrong, but I can't quite put my finger on it". The good news is that it'll funnel few million pounds on years of surveys and research, think about the half dozen jobs it will create.
I found his videos (I watched the Feheely 6900 and his Address to the Board) to be funny. Crudely-animated, yes, but animation is the window dressing to humor, nothing more, and in these videos, the crudeness of the animation actually works in his favor. His videos got outright laughs and giggles out of me.
It seems to me that his school board is clearly in the wrong here. Perhaps they've been paying too much attention south of the border (IE, at the country where I live :( ) and decided to claim the kind of absurd authority unto themselves that American schools get away with claiming.
I hope he takes them to court and the court reams the a new one. Using a lot of vulgar and juvenile humor is not, to my understanding, a crime in Canada. Either way, I do find it amusing that their attempt to punish him has gotten the young Mr. Christie world-wide attention. Hopefully he'll be snatched up by some 'renegade' advertising or comedy group and leave these tossers high and dry.
When they tried to force all the students to sign a form saying they would not bring weapons to school or fight.
Of the 2500 student body I was the only one who refused and was sent to the principal’s office to be suspended. The principle (who I really did respect) tried to coerce me into signing at which point I explained I would not sign on the basis that I have the inalienable right to life and therefore the right to defend that life. I also pointed out that a document signed under coercion was worthless and they had just made all the other documents equally worthless. On top of which minors cannot sign legal documents anyhow.
When they brought up that I was the only one who refused to sign I pointed out to them that perhaps their civics classes were not working quite as well as they should and that perhaps they should consider teaching people how to think instead of how to be a sheep. They then threatened to call my mother so I dialed the number for them and after listening she told them quite colorfully where they could put their document. The principle then let the matter drop and I was allowed to return to class.
[written to the head of the Durham Board of education, where I attended High School]
Hi. I'm Caleb Howard, a graduate of Uxbridge Secondary School's class of 1984. I just read of the ridiculous persecution of Jack Christie (a student at Donald A Wilson SS in Whitby). I read about this in a UK news source (www.theregister.co.uk).
How embarrassing. Aren't you embarrassed? I'm embarrassed.
As a graduate from a Durham regional school, and having worked in the US, Japan, the UK, and Canada, I have always spoken with pride about my national heritage. You've diminished my pride - in my high-school, in my district, and in my country.
How foolish you have been. Please issue a public apology to Mr. Christie, and reinstate him at once. Also, please apologize to all the people who have been embarrassed by your asinine decision.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Caleb J. Howard
Vancouver, BC.
P.S. I am posting this letter in the comments section of the Register, as well as posting it together with a link to the story in my FaceBook account, and issuing an apology on behalf of all embarrassed Canadians throughout the world.
I went and viewed his videos. The first was ok. The 2nd he references his teacher and starts with the following statement:
"Mr. Feneley gave me an early presentation date because he is sick and tired of me not showing up to class. In retaliation, I made this film as taboo and unrelated to the project as possible.
Enjoy, you short-fused bastard."
The video segment ends with him exploding his teacher with laser beams.
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