\nMISSOURI — One of the first high school students to sue\na school district that punished him for the content of a personal\nWeb site settled his case against the district in July.
Woodland High School student Brandon Beussink was suspended\nfor 10 days in February 1998 after he created a Web site criticizing\nthe school.
Woodland administrators had ordered Beussink to take down his\nsite because it contained derogatory comments about a teacher\nand the principal.
Although Beussink took the page down, his principal still suspended\nhim and referred the case to a local prosecutor. Because of all\nthe work he missed, Beussink failed all of his classes that semester.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri filed\na lawsuit against the school district on Beussink’s behalf. In\nDecember 1998, a federal district court judge issued a preliminary\ninjunction prohibiting the school district from using the suspension\nagainst Beussink in grade and attendance calculations, rendering\nany punishment against him or preventing him from posting a Web\nsite.
Beussink’s attorney, Stephen Ryals, said he could not release\nthe details of the July settlement.\n