A Cape Elizabeth High School student suspended for posting a note in a girls’ bathroom saying there was a rapist in the school will have that suspension expunged from her school records, the Portland Press Herald reported.
That settlement will end a lawsuit that began nearly a year ago when the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine filed the free speech complaint on behalf of Aela Mansmann and her mother. The parties have asked the court to approve the agreement with the Cape Elizabeth School Department, a necessary step because the case involves a minor, the Press Herald reported.
A then 15-year-old student, Mansmann wrote an anonymous sticky note saying, “There is a rapist in our school and you know who it is” in September 2019. School authorities suspended Mansmann and two others who left similar notes, saying that the notes were bullying.
But a federal civil court in Portland found and the United States Court of Appeals in Boston upheld a controversial ruling that Mansmann should not be punished for constitutionally protected free speech. Both said that the student’s message followed other unsuccessful attempts to bring the matter to the school’s administrators.
Cape Elizabeth went into court to affirm that it could restrict student speech that results in bullying, said the school system’s attorney, Melissa Hewey. The appeals court did not agree that Mansmann’s note targeted another student but Hewey said their decision still protected the school’s discretion related to bullying, the Press Herald reported.
It was not immediately clear what legal expenses the school system incurred with the case.