the clampdown on teen rights.

• Author: Bronner, Ethan

THE COLUMBINE KILLINGS FUEL A NEW DEBATE ABOUT FREE SPEECH, PRIVACY--AND THE RIGHT TO BE SAFE IN SCHOOL. ARE SCHOOLS OVERREACTING?

Antonious Brown was looking forward to graduating from high school last spring, when some friends told school authorities about a story he had written in a private journal. The Atlanta 17-year-old, who has been writing fiction for pleasure since he learned his ABCs, was imitating his favorite author, Stephen King. In a scene inspired by the book Carrie, Antonious's story climaxes with a violent graduation episode.

The principal recommended counseling, and that was the end of that.

Until April 20, that is. That's when two Littleton, Colorado, high school students went on a gory rampage, killing 12 classmates, a teacher, and themselves at Columbine High School.

Arrested and Expelled

Days later, Atlanta police arrested Antonious and charged him with making "terrorist threats," based on the same journal school officials had already seen. He was expelled from school and not allowed to graduate, and while lawyers battled over whether he needed to see a hospital psychologist (ultimately, a judge decided he didn't), he spent two days in jail.

"I didn't harm anyone," he says. "It was just a hobby. I let a teacher read the story, and the teacher said it was good. I've been waiting all my life to get to 12th grade. Then this happened to set me back. It's not fair."

Widening the Scope

Antonious is not alone. In the months since Columbine, authorities' rules for what is, and is not, acceptable behavior for teenagers have been drastically rewritten. Hoping to prevent another tragedy, parents, teachers, police officers, and the courts are trying to attack violence at its roots. Instead of waiting for another disturbed student to gun down his or her classmates, they have widened the radar scope for acts that could be signs of potential trouble.

The result: Teenagers are being interrogated, suspended, reprimanded, and even arrested--not for committing actual crimes, but for what they say in class, write on tests, post on the Internet, or e-mail to a friend, as well as what they wear and even how they do their hair. Taken together, civil-liberties advocates say, these policies amount to the biggest crackdown on teen rights in recent history.

"It all seems driven by post-Columbine hysteria and misinformation about safety," says Ann Beeson, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). "Students have always been irreverent, but we shouldn't punish them for that behavior."

Beeson and others say the crackdown infringes on the rights of teenagers, dangerously eroding the freedoms guaranteed all citizens in the Constitution.

But...