Student’s Record Wiped Clean Following ‘Free Speech Suspension’
Posted January 18, 2011 8:17 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A Grade 12 student suspended for criticizing his high school’s soccer program will have his record wiped clean.
Emil Cohen said the suspension he received from the administration at Northern Secondary School in November will be removed from his student record.
Cohen was suspended for speaking out against the school’s athletics department, which he claimed didn’t support the soccer program, at an assembly after he was told not to. The student was given a two-day suspension and had his phys-ed privileges revoked.
The move prompted hundreds of students to rally in solidarity with Cohen and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association even weighed in on the issue. The group sent the school’s principal a stern letter stating it had “significant concerns about a school rule or policy that would allow staff members to effectively censor students by reviewing any speeches they intend to deliver in advance or prevent them from voicing their complaints.”
The principal met with Emil and his parents this month to inform them the suspension would be removed from the student’s record and his phys-ed privileges would be reinstated.
