I'm wary of disciplining teachers for their online writings -- especially since I'm a teacher who writes a controversial political blog and who has been attacked by my political opponents. I've even had a couple attempt to interfere with my employment because they don't like what I write. But even without that experience, my natural inclination is to be supportive of the First Amendment rights of my fellow educators.

But I think this one probably went far enough that action should be taken.

Bloggers and free speech advocates are calling on prosecutors not to file charges against a teacher arrested for allegedly posting an anonymous comment online praising the Columbine shooters.

Some were disturbed by the post police say James Buss left on a conservative blog, but other observers said it was a sarcastic attempt to discredit critics of education spending.

The suburban Milwaukee high school chemistry teacher was arrested last week for the Nov. 16 comment left on http://www.bootsandsabers.com, a blog on Wisconsin politics. The comment, left under the name "Observer," came during a discussion over teacher salaries after some commenters complained teachers were underworked and overpaid.

Buss, a former president of the teacher's union, allegedly wrote that teacher salaries made him sick because they are lazy and work only five hours a day. He praised the teen gunmen who killed 12 students and a teacher before committing suicide in the April 1999 attack at Columbine High School.

"They knew how to deal with the overpaid teacher union thugs. One shot at a time!" he wrote, adding they should be remembered as heroes.

The comment disturbed at least one teacher, who called police in West Bend, 40 miles north of Milwaukee and home of the blog's administrator. Police traveled to arrest Buss at his home in Cudahy, south of Milwaukee, last week after the blogger gave them the anonymous poster's IP address.

After his arrest, Buss spent an hour in the Washington County jail before he was released on $350 bail. He did not return phone messages and e-mails seeking comment, and it was unclear whether he had a lawyer.

How should this be handled? I'm not entirely sure, but I think that a good place to start would be to consider how a student who wrote that comment would be dealt with by both the law and the school. I suspect that there might be criminal charges -- at least a misdemeanor -- if this were a student. I'm certain that the student would face expulsion from school over words like these, which would be appropriately seen as a threat due to the lack of any context that could make them appear otherwise.

Obviously, Buss should receive a similar treatment -- and I can't help but argue that such misconduct could be legitimate grounds for termination. And given some of the cases in which I've supported the free expression rights of teachers and students who have done things I find distasteful outside of instructional time, I hope you realize how difficult it is for me to take such position.

And best regards to the guys at Boots and Sabers for their fine way of handling the issue. Their post on the incident is here.

Posted by: Greg at 11:15 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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