PORTLAND, Maine (AP) A federal appeals court has ruled that a lower court was justified in blocking the suspension of a Maine high school student who posted a note in a bathroom to draw attention to sexual assault.

Cape Elizabeth schools suspended 15-year-old Aela Mansmann from Cape Elizabeth High School after she posted a note in a bathroom that said: “There’s a rapist in our school and you know who it is.”

The American Civil Liberties Union of Maine then took on Aela’s case, and a federal judge blocked the suspension while defending Aela’s note as free speech.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston ruled Thursday the lower court was within its right to stop the suspension.