Judge blocks suspension of Maine student over rape awareness note

A federal judge in Maine this week halted the suspension of a girl who posted a rape awareness note in the girls’ bathroom.

Judge Lance Walker, a Trump appointee, on Thursday issued a preliminary injunction preventing the 15-year-old student from being suspended. 

The Associated Press had previously reported that student Aela Mansmann was taking legal action against the suspension over the note, which said, “there’s a rapist in our school and you know who it is.”

Walker wrote that the record suggests that the student’s note “was neither frivolous nor fabricated, took place within the limited confines of the girls’ bathroom, related to a matter of concern to the young women who might enter the bathroom and receive the message, and was not disruptive of school discipline.”

Mansmann was one of three girls the school suspended, arguing that the note was bullying. Walker said that the student’s lawyers argued that the note is protected under the First Amendment while defendants had argued that it was not. 

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“All my daughter ever wanted was for students to feel safe speaking out about sexual assault. I’m so proud of her for standing up for what she believes in. We’re thrilled about today’s decision,” the student’s mother, Shael Norris, said in a statement.