Court Distinguishes Between Threats, Free Speech

By Mark Walsh

A creative-writing essay that depicted an angry student beheading his teacher with a machete was not a true threat of violence, but instead a form of speech protected by the First Amendment, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled last week.

But in another case, decided the same day, the court ruled that a student's statement that he planned to "do something similar" to the 1999 shootings at Colorado's Columbine High School was not "adolescent trash talking," as a lower court had found, but an illegal threat that merited punishment in the juvenile-justice system.

The state high court used the two May 16 rulings to try to draw a line between protected speech and serious threats of violence. The decisions come in a national context of continuing struggles by educators and law-enforcement officials to react both legally and effectively to warning...