How Free is Blog Speech?

An age-old controversy has come to the Blogosphere, courtesy of a chemistry teacher in Wisconsin. Protected free speech vs. speech that incites violence is on the front page. Free speech proponents from all over are coming to the defense of James Buss, a teacher in the Oak Creek school district. Oak Creek is a suburb outside Madison. Recently Buss was arrested for leaving a provocative post on a conservative political website: www.bootsandsabers.com. The anonymous post praised the boys responsible for the Columbine High School shooting that took place in Colorado in 1999. Twelve students were killed and another 23 were wounded. Law and order types who are more sensitive to this kind of behavior are calling for Buss' head, urging that he be prosecuted or at least fired.

The post caused one teacher to call police in West Bend, Wisconsin where the blog's administrator lives. The administrator gave up Buss' IP address. Police tracked down Buss and arrested him. Now prosecutors are deciding whether to file charges or not.

The offending comment was made during a discussion over teacher salaries after some other commentators complained teachers were underworked and overpaid. Buss, who is a former president of the local teacher's union, apparently wrote that teacher salaries made him sick because they are lazy and work only five hours a day. He then went on to praise diabolical work of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the two teen gunmen who killed 12 students and a teacher before committing suicide in the April 1999 attack at Columbine High School. Here is the text of the post left on November 16: "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.

Washington County District Attorney Todd Martens is now considering whether to charge Buss with disorderly conduct and unlawful use of computerized communication systems.

Not everyone was alarmed by the post. Some observers said it was merely a sarcastic attempt to discredit critics of education spending. Buss was merely trying to mock the conservative view on teacher salaries, or so the theory goes. After his arrest, Buss spent an hour in the Washington County jail before he was released on $350 bail.

Police Capt. Toby Netko stands by the decision to arrest. He said the teacher who complained was disturbed by the reference to "one shot at a time." Other teachers agreed it was a threat.
Netko likened Buss' statement to saying "bomb" or "terrorist" in an airport. People are taken into custody all the time for that sort of behavior. If you don't believe it, try it sometime.

Now, for the most part all kinds of offensive, controversial, intolerant, hateful, ugly and stupid speech is protected by the First Amendment. In order for the speech not to be protected (i.e., for the speech to be illegal), it has to be intended to incite violence. The constitution protects most speech, even this comment if it was tongue-in-cheek or a bad joke.
Under the circumstances, it is unlikely that the prosecution will succeed. Though it was in very poor taste, it's a stretch to make this moronic statement into a call to violent action. However, it is likely that Buss could be disciplined by the school district (perhaps even fired) for his comments. The chemistry teacher has been placed on paid administrative leave while his school district considers what action to take.

It is hard to forget the images of teachers and students as they fled the horror that was unfolding inside Columbine High School. As dumb as this comment was, and as much poor judgment as it shows coming from a teacher, he shouldn't be prosecuted for it. However, public comments like this do have consequences. Words do have meaning. At the very least he owes an apology to the victims of the Columbine shooting and to the families of those who didn't survive.