After all the negative articles I've written about this class, I thought I'd choose one a little more positive.
http://thefire.org/article/13298.html
This one covers the decisions in two cases with the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, where the question of whether a school could discipline students for internet activity outside of school hours. Both students had posted.... unfavorable.... profiles mocking their principals. The court found that the school could not discipline for internet activity that occured outside of the school setting.
I have a couple of thoughts on this one. First of all, school rules should not govern a student's activities at home. If these students were using the internet in the privacy of their homes (or the relative privacy of the library), their activity shouldn't have a bearing on school. Should the students have made such a post? Probably not, but teens will be teens. We can't expect them to show the same judgement as an adult. Of course, adults have questionable judgement at times, too! :) My guess would be that the principal upset the students and they used this as a way to strike back... surely never expecting the consequences. I don't think that the question of whether the internet activity would cause a distraction in school is a fair measure for the response, either. A big concert over the weekend can disrupt everything... as can a couple breaking up or any number or things in the teenage world.
Had the incident happened at school, I'd have more questions before I could make my opinion. Does the school prohibit the use of MySpace? Certainly the school's policies (right or wrong) would have a bearing on the response.
I'm reminded about something that happened to a friend in college. She was overheard criticizing the teaching assistant for a class and ended up losing participation points in the class as a result. We were too young and clueless to know to fight it by going to the dean or anything. I wonder what would have happened if she had?
This reminds me of the "bong hits for jesus" case in Alaska. I will never understand the logic behind some people's opinions that if you are under the "magic" age of 18, you somehow lose you right to think and speak. Then I meet people who are under 18 and I understand, to a point, but that doesn't make them right. Bottom line, democracy and freedom are messy, especially for the innocent youth, and thats the way it should be.
ReplyDeleteSo did the students just write things about their principle on social networks or did they create actual profiles that misrepresented the principle? I would assume they just wrote things since they "got off easy." However, creating profiles and impersonating individuals is a serious issue and deserves apt punishment.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't sure from reading the article. But, is it the schools place to punish them if it didn't happen during school hours?
ReplyDeleteAs long as they weren't actually threatening the principals, I don't think it is right for them to be punished. That's like kids getting in trouble at school for not doing their chores at home. School does not have jurisdiction at a student's home. Should the kids have criticizer their principal on the internet...no. However, I'm pretty sure we've discussed in this class that adults do the same thing. They bash their boss on the Facebook and lose their job the next day. It happens all the time. This doesn't make it right, but it happens. Bottom line, the kids have a right to their opinions.
ReplyDeleteIt is comforting to know that there are still courts out there ruling on the side of intellectual freedom, however the article said that the students created parody profiles of their principal that mocked him severely. This does not seem right to me and the students should have been punished, if not by the school, then by their parents or some other authority. One way I can see teenagers taking advantage of free speech is saying they have the right to disrespect authority. We have the right to free speech, but we also need to understand that there are culture consequences when we abuse this right.
ReplyDeleteI have heard of several cases where they try and punish students for something that happened outside school hours and off school property. I think that sometimes school administrators and teachers need to be reminded that once a student does leave the school and goes home that it isn't their responsibility to monitor them, there comes a point where you have to let parents be parents.
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