Tennessee High School Reverses Speech Policies After Student Sues over Suspension for Posting Memes About Principal

A Tennessee high school has reversed its speech policies following a lawsuit by a 17-year-old student who was suspended for posting memes about the principal, according to a Tuesday press release.

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a First Amendment advocacy group, filed a lawsuit in July on behalf of a senior at Tullahoma High School, alleging that the administration suspended the student for posting satirical images, or memes, on Instagram that poked fun at the principal’s “overly serious” behavior. In an agreement, the high school has wiped the student’s suspension from his record while the lawsuit continues and has removed pages from its handbook that state students cannot  “embarrass,” “discredit” or “humiliate” members of the school community.

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Commentary by Steve Gill: Memes Emerge as a Potent New Weapon in the Tennessee Political Battlefield

  They appear with increasing regularity on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and other social media — some funny, some confusing, some simply annoying. Those pictures of an annoyed baby, Picard with a face palm, the Joker with his creepy grin, Kermit the Frog sipping tea, or an endless array of iconic celebrity-types with inserted text making a point about some current event are becoming a ubiquitous source of cultural, political and social commentary. Anybody with an iPad or mobile phone and an app can get in the game. Add a dose of creativity, a pinch of sarcasm and and a scoop of irony and you have the not-so-secret recipe. The term “meme” was actually coined by author and scientist Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene. The current internet-based phenomenon is something more viral, and less genetic, than Dawkins was referencing. And like unexpected genetic aberrations, the impact and future of the “meme” is unpredictable. Memes are perhaps best defined as editorial cartoons on steroids — distributed by people who can’t draw. Memes have been “political” for a while, with Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton both becoming targets of internet-based mockery before and after the election. Congress is a…

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