It is indeed a sad week for bloggers, especially student bloggers. A dental student at the Marquette University Dental School has been charged for saying “crude, demeaning and unprofessional remarks”, and has been sentenced to probation on the condition that he plead guilty. Oh, and no blogging either.
This is just outrageous. His blog is pretty innocuous, and talks about normal student subjects. The most offensive remarks are about a professor who he insulted by saying he wasn’t fit to teach. I don’t know about you, but doesn’t free speech mean anything anymore? He didn’t even mention the professor’s name, which clears him of potential libel charges.
I suggest all student bloggers at universities be on caution now. A precendence has been set–Marquette is responding way to harshly against his blog posts. They do have all the right to punish him, but it’s not really worth it. From the comments about what he said, he is definitely not a rabble-rouser. This incident is well covered by other blogs.