Moyer

[Opinion certified for partial publication. [*] ]

OPINION

RACANELLI, P.J.

Plaintiff Larry L. Moyer, a teacher by profession, filed a 12-count complaint seeking damages on theories of defamation and infliction of emotional distress arising from the publication of a story in a high school student newspaper. Plaintiff now appeals from an order dismissing his complaint following the sustaining of general demurrers without leave to amend. The appeal is presented against the following factual and procedural background.

On March 11, 1988, an article appeared in In Flight, a student publication of Foothill High School, reporting that a smoke bomb had gone off in plaintiff's classroom. The headline stated: "Students terrorize Moyer." The article quoted the bomb-throwing student who merely "wanted to play a joke" as well as "The Shadow," the student who supplied the smoke bomb because "Mr. Moyer is a babbler, and babblers are annoying to me.... [¶] Also he pissed me off, he is the worst teacher at FHS."

The complaint named as party defendants the school district, school principal, student newspaper adviser, the students who made and reported the comments, including another student who…