Skinny and unsure of himself, 17-year-old Justin Layshock of Hermitage took the stand yesterday to try to convince a federal judge to let him return to his classes at Hickory High School in Mercer County.

		Previous Coverage Punished for parody, student sues school (01/28/06)

Justin, a senior in the gifted program at the school, was suspended for 10 days earlier this month and then placed in the school's Alternative Education Program for creating an online profile of his school principal, Eric Trosch, on the popular Web site www.myspace.com on Dec. 10.

In the parody, Justin posted a picture of Mr. Trosch he took from the school's Web site and made fun of his principal's size. He also used obscenities.

The Hermitage School District exacted its punishment on Justin, and he is now challenging it through a federal lawsuit filed on his behalf by the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania. Justin claims that the profile he created is a form of protected free speech -- specifically because he did it on his grandmother's computer and not while at school.

Yesterday, his ACLU attorney, Witold Walczak, asked U.S. District Judge Terrence F. McVerry for a temporary restraining order that would allow Justin to return to his classes while the lawsuit is litigated.

To win the order, though, Justin must prove he is being "irreparably harmed" by the current punishment.

John R. Gotaskie Jr., who represents the school district, says that's not the case, and that Justin's instruction in the three-hour-a-day alternative program is more than what is required by state law.

In addition, he said the profile is not protected free speech because of the connection between the home activity and what occurred at school, including Justin trying to access the site from there.

The judge is expected to make his decision today.

At times on the stand, Justin sounded like an awkward teenager, interspersing the word "like" throughout his answers, and saying "yeah," and "um" to questions posed to him by lawyers on both sides.

But often during his 90-minute testimony, his intelligence and maturity came through. "I certainly didn't think it would have the kind of effects it's had," he said.

After he was called in to speak to school administrators about the profile, Justin went to Mr. Trosch to apologize.

He told Mr. Trosch he was sorry and asked him to pass the apology on to his daughter, who also goes to the school.

But that wasn't the end of the issue. Just as winter break was ending, Justin and his mother were called to the school again to learn what his punishment would be.

Around that same time, he also found out that the Hermitage police were investigating all four online profiles.

Administrators at Hickory contend that the profiles of Mr. Trosch caused so much disruption at school -- students were logging on to the myspace.com Web site thousands of times -- that all student computer use in the building had to be stopped from Dec. 16 to Dec. 21.

Justin claims that school officials have told him he'll have to finish his senior year in the Alternative Education Program.

But the administrators now claim that's not the case. Mr. Gotaskie told Judge McVerry that it's possible Justin could return to his regular classes with "proper conduct and behavioral modification."