北加州东湾的丹维尔的学生在针对圣拉蒙山谷联合学区的言论自由的诉讼中获得和解，将获665,000美元及公开道歉
编者按：
三年前一位叫Nate Yu的亚裔学生被他所在高中校方暴凌，他和同学制作的喜剧搞笑视频被污蔑为“种族主义”、“仇视穆斯林”。老师的朋友、同为本校家长而在社区十分有影响力的人物甚至在Facebook贴大字散播谣言，引起社区不了解真相的人在社交网络上围攻未成年孩子，使Nate和他的父母、弟弟、妹妹深受身心的迫害，导致三个孩子数周不能上学。Nate和他的父母对学区提起诉讼，状告学区侵害学生言论自由。他们遭到的不公待遇在华裔社区引起公愤。三年后，案子在庭外和解了。
大家应该记得Yu家三年前用gofundme向社区求助，筹款打官司告学区。加州甚至外州很多朋友都慷慨捐款。本地的朋友不少也参加了学区会议，声援受害者及他的家庭，谴责学区和老师捕风捉影迫害亚裔学生。Nate Yu因为勇敢发声获得2018年度SVCA基金会的The Voice of Asian Americans Scholarship。
他们的诉讼历时长达三年，当初Nate是high school senior，如今已经大三。漫长的诉讼过程中Yu家爸爸妈妈把自己为退休存留的资金和给孩子上大学存的学费拿出来打官司。除了巨大的经济压力之外，Yu家面对“社区领袖”和他们的附和者对儿子的personality assassination，面对无数不解实情听信谣言的群众的白眼，仍然坚持做“硬骨头”。试想一个移民家庭，与掌握着孩子生杀大权的校方和学区官员针锋相对；一份普通工薪阶层的薪水苦苦支撑律师费用，与有雄厚资金支持的学区律师团队相比，如鸡蛋碰石头。Yu家知道自己选择的诉讼道路是不可为而为之，为的是给孩子讨一个公道，也为了其他孩子不会继续受到Nate遭遇的迫害。他们打赢官司，警告了行事不公的学区及其领导，正面回击了利用拿政治正确做幌子对当事人无限上纲上线、甚至谋取私利的恶劣行径，避免类似的群体性霸凌亚裔学生的事件再次发生。
本文转载翻译本地报纸对该案的最新报道，仅供参考
by Ryan J. Degan
The San Ramon Valley Unified School District has settled a free-speech lawsuit involving a former student who was disciplined for his part in the creation of a video that at the time had been described as Islamophobic.
圣拉蒙山谷联合学区为言论自由诉讼达成和解，此诉讼涉及一名已毕业的学生，学区当时把他参与制作的视频定性为伊斯兰恐慌，对他进行了纪律处分。
As a part of the settlement, the district will award former San Ramon Valley High School student body president Nathaniel Yu $665,000 and will apologize for “negative effects, disruption and emotional distress” suffered by Yu and his family resulting from discipline inflicted on him from the district.
和解的内容包括学区赔偿前圣拉蒙谷高中学生会主席Nathaniel Yu 66.5万美元，并向Nathaniel Yu及其家人因学区处罚而遭受“负面影响、干扰和情绪困扰”而道歉。
“The landmark settlement figure sends a strong message to public school officials throughout the country that the First Amendment prohibits them from censoring off-campus student speech that does not substantially disrupt school activities,” Frank LoMonte, First Amendment scholar and former Student Press Law Center executive director, said in a statement on Tuesday. “This is especially true in instances such as this where the speech was made on a weekend, entirely off-campus, and with no school resources.”
“这一和解有里程碑意义，向全国的公立学校官员发出了一个强烈的信息：宪法第一修正案禁止公立学校审查学生在校外作出的、不严重扰乱学校活动的言论，” 第一修正案学者、前学生新闻法中心执行主任弗兰克·洛蒙特（Frank LoMonte）在星期二的讲话中说道。“这一点在此案中尤其突出，在周末发生、完全在校外进行的、没有动用学校的资源的类似情况均成立。”
According to the lawsuit, the school district violated Yu’s constitutional rights under the First Amendment when it disciplined him for his role in creating what Yu’s representatives called “a James Bond-style parody video,” back in February 2017, during his campaign for student body president.
根据诉讼信息，在2017年2月的学生会主席竞选活动中，学区因为Yu制作了所谓“詹姆斯·邦德式搞笑视频”，对他进行纪律处分，侵犯了Yu受第一修正案保护的宪法权利。
DanvilleSanRamon.com attempted to obtain a copy of the video when the controversy first arose in 2017 but was unsuccessful. Yu’s legal team declined a request to release the video on Tuesday.
当争议在2017年刚刚发生时，DanvilleSanRamon.com试图获得视频的副本，但没有成功。Yu的法律团队拒绝了周二发布视频的请求。
SRVUSD leaders had not responded to a request for comment as of late afternoon Tuesday.
截至周二下午晚些时候，SRVUSD领导人尚未对置评请求作出回应。
Court documents do include an exhibit with proposed verbiage for Superintendent Rick Schmitt’s forthcoming public apology.
法庭文件中确实有一项证据，描述了学监里克·施密特（Rick Schmitt）即将公开道歉的措辞。
“We understand that events that followed were not easy for you and your family. We want to formally acknowledge that, despite various reports on social media and in the press that described the video as ‘hate speech,’ we do not believe the contents of the video constituted ‘hate speech,'” Schmitt’s proposed letter reads, in part.
“我们知道接下来发生的事情对你和你的家人来说并不容易。我们想正式承认，尽管社交媒体和媒体上有各种报道称这段视频为“仇恨言论”，但我们不认为视频内容构成“仇恨言论”，施密特(Schmitt)提议的信中的部分内容写道。
“We further believe that the video did not bully, harass, discriminate against, or threaten anyone. Finally, the video did not portray any sexual content. The district recognizes and regrets the negative consequences associated with mischaracterizations regarding you and the content of the video,” the letter added.
信中还提到：“我们还相信，视频没有霸凌、骚扰、歧视或威胁任何人。最后，视频没有描绘任何有关性的内容。学区承认对你和视频内容的错误定位所造成的负面后果，为此感到抱歉。”
The lawsuit describes the video as depicting Yu — who was a 17-year-old junior at the time — as a “James Bond-type hero” who rescued a person kidnapped by two members of an “extremist group” who were attempting to force the victim to participate in a video game competition.
这起诉讼中提到视频描述当时17岁的少年Yu是一名“詹姆斯·邦德式英雄”，他从两名“极端组织”成员的手中解救了一名被绑架的人，绑架的目的是企图让人参加电子游戏比赛。
The video was created off-campus at a friend’s house on Feb. 4, and according to Yu’s attorneys, was an improvised project where “each participant individually developed their characters, improvised their lines without any prior review or consultation, and brought their own props to the off-campus filming location.”
这段视频是2月4日在一个朋友地处校外的家里制作的。据Yu的律师说，这是一个即兴创作的活动，“每个参与者都即兴创造自己的角色，在没有任何预先审查或咨询的情况下即兴创作自己的台词，将自己的道具带到校外拍摄地点。”
The group did not use school property or equipment to create the video, which did not mention SRVHS or the leadership class, and did not feature the school’s or leadership class’s name, logo or other indicia.
该团体没有使用学校的财产或设备录制录像，录像中没有提到SRVHS或领导力课程的课名，也没有显示学校或领导里课的名称、标志或其他标记。
After uploading the video, Yu was alerted by a fellow student that some individuals may find the video offensive, resulting in Yu promptly requesting that the student who edited the video remove it from YouTube. According to the lawsuit the video was taken down hours prior to when students before students bagan casting their ballots on the Feb. 7 election and had only reached approximately 30 views before it was removed.
上传视频后，有同学提醒Yu，可能有人对视频反感，Yu立即要求编辑视频的学生将视频从YouTube上删除。根据诉讼，这段视频是在2月7日学生们投票前几个小时上传的，撤下前只有大约30人观看过。
Yu would go on to win the most votes in the election, but he was initially disqualified from holding the post and removed from the school’s leadership class because of the video. However district officials would later reinstate him as ASB president.
在竞选投票中，Yu最终赢得最多选票，但学校取消了他的职务，并因视频将他从该校的领导力课上开除。不过，学区官员随后恢复了他ASB主席的职务。
“(Yu) and four of his friends stated that the parody’s purpose was to entertain and was not intended to threaten or demean any person, race, or culture,” the suit read.
诉讼中写道：“Yu和他的四个朋友说，模仿的目的是娱乐，而不是威胁或贬低任何人、任何种族或文化。”
Afterward the district reversed its discipline, but Yu’s representatives said the teen continued to face retaliation and public disparagement from other students and district employees — citing in the lawsuit examples of teachers alerting media, local politicians, local and national Muslim organizations and other officials that Yu mocked and disparaged Muslims.
随后，学区撤销了处罚，但Yu的律师说，这名少年继续面临来自其他学生和学区员工的报复和公开诋毁——例证包括一些教师把他的事情举报给媒体、当地政客以及全国性的穆斯林组织和其他官员，说Yu是在嘲笑和诋毁穆斯林。
Another example cited in the lawsuit was two occurrences where his designated parking spot was vandalized with language that mocked his Catholic faith.
诉讼中引用的另一个例子是他的停车位两次被人故意搞破坏，写上了侮辱语言，嘲讽他的天主教信仰。
“No one should be subjected to what my family and I have been forced to endure. As a child of immigrants, I am constantly reminded that we cannot take our civil rights for granted. We must continue our fight to preserve these rights at all costs,” Yu said in a statement.
“任何人都不应该受到我和我的家人这样的折磨。作为移民的后代，我不断的意识到，我们不能漠视自己的公民权利，我们必须继续不惜一切代价维护这些权利，”Yu在一份声明中说。
Last November, U.S. District Judge Maxine Chesney ruled against the school district’s motion to dismiss the case according to Yu’s representatives, rejecting SRVUSD’s argument that the video constituted school-sponsored speech. Soon thereafter the district proposed to settle after being ordered to release more than 12,000 documents related to the case.
Yu的律师说，去年11月，美国地区法官马克辛·切斯尼（Maxine Chesney）做出对学区不利大判决， 学区试图用视频属于学校赞助的观点撤销Yu的指控 。此后不久，该学区在被勒令公布12,000多份与此案有关的文件后，提议和解。
A portion of the most related documents have been released online by Yu’s legal team for additional review by the public.
一部分最相关的文件已经由Yu的法律团队在网上发布，供公众进一步查看。
“It was an honor and a privilege to represent Nathaniel and his family in this important First Amendment lawsuit. The defendants punished him for the parody video because they found it ‘offensive’ and ‘inappropriate.’ The First Amendment, however, prohibits government officials from punishing speakers for speech simply because they subjectively disapprove of its content,” added Yu’s lead attorney James Carlos McFall, a Dallas partner at Jackson Walker LLP.
“能代表Nathaniel和他的家人参加这次重要的第一修正案诉讼，是我的荣幸。被告（学区）因搞笑视频而惩罚他，因为他们认为视频‘冒犯人’和‘不合适’。然而，第一修正案禁止政府官员仅仅因为他们主观上不赞成视频内容就惩罚言论发表者。”Yu的首席律师，隶属于达拉斯合伙人杰克逊沃克律师事务所的詹姆斯·卡洛斯·麦克法尔（James Carlos McFall)补充道。
As a part of the settlement, in addition to the cash payout the district is also obligated to post an apology to the school website under the “NEWS” tab within five business days of the filing of the joint motion for stipulated dismissal.
作为和解的一部分，除了支付现金外，学区还必须在双方联合达成和解动议的五个工作日内，在学校网站的“新闻”一栏里发表道歉。
That dismissal document was filed in federal court on Tuesday, according to Yu’s attorneys. The public apology had not been posted on the SRVUSD website as of early Tuesday evening.
据Yu的律师称，该案件的和解文件已于周二提交联邦法院。截至周二晚间早些时候，SRVUSD网站还没有公布公开道歉。
附录：
对录像内容和相关背景有兴趣的，读读 https://studentspeechrights.org/case-discovery/ 有link to original doc。
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