It has always qualified as "speaking truth to power" when the context is right (i.e. power is doing something stupid like asking you to write an essay that doesn't matter in any way) and when you have a well thought out rationale like this kid did.

Good on him.

Kid honestly had a decent point, but the entire message was lost the moment he put down 'YOLO'.

It's the difference between making a statement and trying to score some coolness points with your internet buddies.

he was responding to a decidedly pointless schoolwork assignment with exactly what it deserved. why does the school get to be cynical but not the kid?

He refused to do an assignment, got stupidly snarky about it, and the school responded on his level.

Everyone involved is retarded, but hey, YOLO.

Yeah he's sure fightin' the power.

But I'm saying he was already responding to the school's level. A homework assignment that a student gains no academic incentive for completing is the same as not getting paid at work. It's a stupid, domineering imposition.

The situation is like this: You have one--much stronger--party bullying another, much weaker, one. The offended party then demonstrates the same brand of contempt back to the first party. The first party, the aggressor in the first place, then takes revenge on the second for flouting its dominance.

For example: A bully tries to make a nerd do his homework. The nerd refuses, and makes a silly face at the bully. The bully then breaks the nerd's nose. Then you say: "Well, they were both equally in the wrong." You're a rape apologist.

And, yeah, he was fightin' the power, because he was punished for it. If it didn't matter then it wouldn't have provoked a reaction.

You may want to consider the possibility you are assigning higher motives to someone who might possibly be a lazy retarded fuck who was unironically using it to be lazy and not write an essay. A further review of his text messages must be performed to confirm this.

yeah, let's not dilute the meaning of the sacred acronym that is yolo.

Hey, I'm all for idiot kids taking ownership of their possibly poor decisions. And I'm all for taking their admission that they knew what they were doing was stupid and beating them over the head with it.