Student safety concerns

According to this report, twenty schoolkids have been suspended for viewing a threatening post on a private web page:

A middle school student faces expulsion for allegedly posting graphic threats against a classmate on the popular MySpace.com Web site, and 20 of his classmates were suspended for viewing the posting, school officials said.

Police are investigating the boy's comments about his classmate at TeWinkle Middle School as a possible hate crime, and the district is trying to expel him.

According to three parents of the suspended students, the invitation to join the boy's MySpace group gave no indication of the alleged threat. They said the MySpace social group name's was "I hate (girl's name)" and included an expletive and an anti-Semitic reference.

So we've reached the point of absurdity where even innocent bystanders are being punished for the actions of others? When did we pass through that looking glass anyway?

But here's my favorite part:

[District assistant superintendent of secondary education Bob] Metz said the students' suspensions in mid-February were appropriate because the incident involved student safety.

Oh, that's okay then . . . as long as it was done for safety reasons.

What????

Hat tip to Radley Balko.