YOU ARE WHAT YOU TWEET: How a star student learned the hard way that social media can get you suspended.

A 17-year old student from Michigan got suspended back in January for sending a tweet to his superintendent—a tweet that contained a curse word and berated the school official at the same time.

It all began when superintendent Kenneth Gutman tweeted his apology for not having his school’s parking lot plowed sufficiently right after a big snowstorm with his cell phone tracker spy. The tweet went out to the district saying:

“I apologize for the parking lots not being plowed. It’s unacceptable and we’re on it.”

The problem began, however, when frustrated student Leonardo Semma replied directly back to the super in a less than appropriate way with his version of the cell phone text spy. Semma’s tweet went as follows:

“Sorry's not going to melt the snow. Grab a shovel and get your *** out here at 5:30 sharp boi.”

Well, needless to say, this did not go over well with the superintendent, nor other school officials. By 9:45, he was summoned to the Principal’s office and given a notice of suspension—for three days.

Many are outraged over the severity of the punishment—saying that it’s extreme for such a small infraction. But there are those who feel that the boy needs to learn some respect when using a cell phone text message spy. However it seems that Semma, who claimed he was angry because he fell and hit his head on ice that morning, hasn’t quite learned his lesson. He later tweeted up a summation of his experience, which was retweeted over 61,000 times:

“My greatest high school achievement.”

This is not the first time a student has been suspended for inappropriate tweets. April Gehl, a star basketball player from a Wisconsin high school, was also in hot water for her controversial tweet regarding sports chants guidelines from officials at the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association. The passionate teen tweeted an image of the association’s email along with her eloquently stated feelings:

“EAT **** WIAA.”

Her punishment was a 5-game suspension from the sport.

While many feel that this too is an extreme punishment—especially for someone stating their opinion—there are plenty who support the ruling. Travis Wilson of Wisconsin Sports Network sums it up perfectly in my opinion:

“Too often in recent years with the rise of social media, student-athletes and students have developed a misplaced idea that they can say whatever they want wherever they want and get away with it.”

The lesson in all of this is that if you don’t agree with something, sure go ahead and say it—verbally! Just don’t put it in writing.