If the apparently increased pressure to get into college isn't enough, now students are apparently no longer allowed to let off steam away from school.

In Wisniewski v. Board of Educ. of Weedsport Cent. School Dist., the Second Circuit upheld a student's suspension for sending a "threat" via instant message to some of his fellow students. That instant message was an "icon [that] was a small drawing of a pistol firing a bullet at a person's head, above which were dots representing splattered blood. Beneath the drawing appeared the words 'Kill Mr. VanderMolen.'" Mr. VanderMolen was the student's English teacher.

The message was sent from the student's home computer. The kids who received it weren't at school. The facts are unclear about what happened next, but it's not hard to imagine. The kids probably laughed, and someone started forwarding it around. Next thing you know, it ended up in the hands of the school. Investigations were performed, and the results didn't exactly speak to huge repercussions on the part of the school. "[A] police investigator who interviewed Aaron concluded that the icon was meant as a joke, that Aaron fully understood the severity of what he had done, and that Aaron posed no real threat to VanderMolen or to any other school official. A pending criminal case was then closed. Aaron was also evaluated by a psychologist, who also found that Aaron had no violent intent, posed no actual threat, and made the icon as a joke."

The school district was having no part of that. The hearing officer, an attorney for the school district, didn't really care:

VanCoske found that the icon was threatening and should not have been understood as a joke. Although the threatening act took place outside of school, she concluded that it was in violation of school rules and disrupted school operations by requiring special attention from school officials, replacement of the threatened teacher, and interviewing pupils during class time. The hearing officer acknowledged the opinions of the police investigator and the psychologist that Aaron did not intend to harm VanderMolen and that he did not pose any real threat, but stated that "intent [is] irrelevant." Citing the evidentiary standard followed in New York suspension hearings, the decision concluded:

Substantial and competent evidence exists that Aaron engaged in the act of sending a threatening message to his buddies, the subject of which was a teacher. He admitted it. Competent and substantial evidence exists that this message disrupted the educational environment....

As a result of the foregoing, I conclude that Aaron did commit the act of threatening a teacher, in violation of page 11 of the student handbook, creating an environment threatening the health, safety and welfare of others, and his actions created a disruption in the school environment.

The hearing officer recommended suspension of Aaron for one semester. The recommendation was presented to the district's Board of Education (“Board”), which approved the one semester suspension in late September 2001. Aaron was suspended for the first semester of the 2001-2002 school year.

I'm sure there were lots of times when people I know said something, jokingly, as the student in this case, about killing a teacher. I know people said it about fellow students. Now, in spite of the fact that law enforcement determined there was no threat, busybody school administrators apparently feel that it is their duty to go further, and to use their tendencies to be busybodies as a justification for the punishment.

It must be stifling at times to be a young student these days. Entrance requirements for universities seems to continually escalate, often pushing former safety schools out of reach of the saner of students. Meanwhile, pressure to go to more "prestigious" schools appears to be increasing. Pressure to perform is generally greater. Words are watched carefully, even when they're solely used to vent. And because those words are no longer purely ephemeral, but are logged and forwarded and traded among others, one must be on constant guard, out of fear of being found to have made a threat.

The courts, as seen here, aren't helping things.