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Kent student wins case linked to 'obits' on Web

Officials mistook satire for a school 'hit list'

Tuesday, March 28, 2000

By JACK HOPKINS Mail Author
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

KENT -- A Kent high school student, who was suspended for using his home computer to set up a Web site with fake obituaries for two classmates, has won an out-of-court settlement against school officials who mistook the satirical death notices for a "hit list."

In the settlement, which was announced yesterday, the Kent School District agreed not to impose any kind of punishment against Kentlake High School student Nick Emmett, to pay the college-bound senior $1 in damages and to pick up the $6,000 cost of his lawyers' fees.

The agreement, reached late last week after negotiations with the American Civil Liberties Union, came after the honor student filed a federal lawsuit last month.

The case was the first in this area to result in a court ruling backing a student's right to create a Web page on his or her home computer, the ACLU's Doug Honig said yesterday. On Feb. 23, U.S. District Court Judge John Coughenour issued a temporary restraining order rescinding the school district's five-day suspension of Emmett. The judge said the district had failed to provide any evidence the high school senior intended harm to anyone.

The case was not the first dispute over school districts that place limits on students' home computer activities.

Still pending is another ACLU lawsuit filed for a Thurston County high school student who was expelled for a month last year for using his home computer to create a Web site lampooning his school's vice principal.

In a much-publicized 1995 case, the Seattle-based ACLU chapter won an out-of-court settlement for Bellevue student Paul Kim after his principal disciplined him for creating a parody of his high school from a home computer.

The Newport High School student, whose sexually explicit home page upset the school's principal, received an apology and a $2,000 settlement from the Bellevue School District.

In the Kent case, Emmett, co-captain of the Kentlake High basketball team, sued the school district after it tried to suspend him for creating the "Unofficial Kentlake High Home Page" on his home computer.

The school district became concerned about the Web site when a television news reporter mistakenly reported it included a "hit list" threatening to harm fellow students. Officials decided to suspend Emmett.

"It feels good to get this behind me," Emmett, 18, said from his home last night. "I just learned to stand up for what I think is right. I didn't think that I or future students in the same situation should be punished."

Emmett said he hopes school officials can put it behind them.

"I think I can tell that things won't be how they were before," he said. "I would see administration people turn their heads in the hallways. They could have handled it better."

P-I reporter Jack Hopkins can be reached at 206-870-7851 or jackhopkins@seattle-pi.com

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