"Teddy Bear Master" causes uproar

When I think of what it means to have the freedom of speech, "expressing" how I feel filming a video aimed at antagonizing and humiliating one of my teachers or another's teacher does not come to mind. Especially if that movie is entitled "The Teddy Bear Master."

Creativity and a whole lot of time was shared by four high school sophomores to end up with their 78-minute DVD. And then there was, of course, their subsequent expulsion followed by your classic "lawsuit situation."

Yes, that's right: after four high school students were embarrassed, or enraged, or whatever, by one of their teachers in Indianapolis' Knightstown Intermediate School, they devised the storyline of a "Teddy Bear Master," a mean stuffed animal who instigated trouble with other stuffed animals, (yes, these are high school students making this up), and attempted to kill this particular teacher. The students played heroes in the movie, fighting off the Teddy Bear Master before he could do any real harm. And once all of this was put into motion picture form, the students, Isaac Imel, Cody Overbay, Charlie Ours, and a fourth, burned DVDs of it and distributed the film to a few people, though no one affiliated with their school.

But the school found out anyway, and, seeing the movie as a threat to the teacher in question, expelled these four students. Subsequently, seeing the opportunity to reap the benefits of claiming freedom of speech infringements, Imel, Overbay, and Ours filed a lawsuit against the school. They based their suit on the fact that their First Amendment rights had been violated. And you know what makes this all crazier? They won -- and were awarded $69,000 in the settlement, but only after saying they were sorry. Furthermore, their permanent records were wiped completely clean of all traces of the event.

Like many bizarre freedom of speech cases, this story made me wonder where the line is drawn between what it's OK to say, (or watch, or distribute), and what is taboo. If I were to recommend something to these students, it would to get a hobby other than the one they clearly have already attempted, and secondly, to keep pent-up anger over a grade or a class to themselves.

We are living in a day and age where people or corporations are likely to sue over the most ridiculous reasons. Suing over burning your mouth because of hot coffee and blaming fast food for one's obesity while continuing to eat the food both come to mind. And both situations could be avoided, just like this most recent judicial decision.

There is a line that separates making a well-founded statement and being plain stupid in certain actions. Although the thought of violent stuffed animals, especially the likes of the Velveteen Rabbit, Elmo, and possibly Clifford, may seem humorous to kids our age, again, it needs to be understood that locally and nationally, our sensitivity tolerance is not as high as it was years ago. People today are not afraid to blow things out of proportion, and some may agree that the school acted as irrationally as these four amateur movie stars -- which brings me to another point: where does a school's authority begin and end? Recently coming from high school, I experienced, much like many other students, how the administration of a school wishes to extend its authority over its students outside of school hours.

Say, for instance, you were cited for any type of small misdemeanor and you competed on an athletic team.

You would subsequently be suspended, if not thrown off of that team for the rest of the season.

As I found out, rules like these were in place in both private and public schools. So, in a way, even though this film was not distributed in the school, I have to say I am not surprised that the kids found themselves in trouble eventually anyway.

With undoubtedly more cases like this one to arise, and our society living in a system of "elevated" threat levels, I wonder if the next step in our school systems, at least at the lower levels, is an even more hypersensitive environment for students preparing to go off on their own in the world of college.

I fear that it is.