Varsity Defensive End Kicked Off Team and Suspended For Writing a Poem

Poetry can be a powerful tool to express one's feelings. Confessional poets such as John Berryman, Sylvia Plath, or Anne Sexton often wrote poetry as a form of therapy, a way to vent one's frustrations about the world. This one particular student and varsity football player at an Ohio public high school was only writing a poem for an English class assignment, but it got him in hot water with his coach and principal. Is it fair that this student was kicked off the team and suspended from school for writing something he was passionate/frustrated about? Especially if it was for a class assignment? Read the following article, and we will discuss in class whether his poem was slander/harrassment or his freedom of speech. Defensive End Kicked Off Team For Writing a Poem