PHILADELPHIA (AP) - The father of an eighth-grader suspended from school for writing a story about a planet named ``Poland Jewpiter'' has filed a federal lawsuit claiming his son's free-speech rights were violated.
The mythical planet 14-year-old Brad Herman described had air that smelled like sausages and people wearing ``funny hats'' who listened and danced to bar mitzvah music, according to the lawsuit filed Tuesday. He also said the food tasted good.
He ended his paper with the words: ``I hope to never go to this planet.''
Teachers and administrative at the school did not return telephone calls Tuesday to explain why the story resulted in the boy's suspension.
Earlier this month, Brad and other students at Brandywine Heights Middle School in Topton were given an assignment in English class to make up a story about a planet, name it and describe its traits that relate to the five senses.
Brad, who is not of Jewish or Polish origin, said he got the idea for the fake planet from his Polish friend and from an MTV program that showed a bar mitzvah, said his attorney Daylin Leach.
The boy had no idea anyone would be offended, Leach said.
``He wrote an innocuous story. It contains no insults,'' Leach said. ``But even if it did offend people, you can't suspend a student because of the content of his story. Students have First Amendment rights, too.''
On April 19, Brad was suspended for a week from school after his teacher asked him to read his paper in class and an administrator later chastised and berated Brad in the halls in front of other children, court documents stated.
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