RUSH: A 15-year-old student at Cape Elizabeth High in Portland, Maine just won a “free speech” case. She admitted that she wrote a message and stuck it on a school bathroom mirror. The message: “There is a rapist in our school, and you know who it is.”
Well, people didn’t know who it was. The school rumor mill went into overdrive, as school administrators conducted dozens of interviews to get to the bottom of it. One boy whose name came up in the rumor mill stayed home for eight days out of fear for his safety.
Nothing was ever proven about the identity of the alleged rapist, or if there ever was a rapist.
The judge said that he understands the school administrators’ perspective, but they don’t have carte blanche to tamp down the student’s concerns about social justice.
So. You can’t yell “fire” in a crowded theater, but you can yell “rape” in a crowded school. You can put it on a mirror. As for those wrongly accused or smeared? Too bad. No social justice for them. Besides they’re guys, they’re guilty anyway, right?
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