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?
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Monday, June 13, 2011
Sinclair College
I found this article today: Unconstitutional Ban on Distributing Literature.
A student passed out literature after class and was later told that she was in violation of school policies, which do not allow for any materials to be distributed in the classrooms... or on much of the campus for that matter.
She had waited until after class to distribute her literature. I don't see anything that indicates that she was being obnoxious in the way she approached the other students. But someone got offended by the topic and complained.
The fact is, during my undergrad days, a lot of what was handed out on campus offended me. And I'm sure that had I given out pamphlets stating my views, it wouldn't have been appreciated by some of my fellow students. Does that mean that it would have been wrong for either of us to distribute that material? No, of course not. Does it mean that I had to accept, read, or keep the material? No.
This school has taken a very unconstitutional approach, probably in an attempt to avoid conflict. I'm so thankful that I went to a school that supported my freedom of speech, instead of trying to suppress it!
I looked at some of the related links and found it humorous in a horrifying way that the school's initial response was to attempt to ban distribution of all literature on campus. Granted, that could cut down on a lot of confusion and reduce the annoyance of having papers thrust at you while trying to walk across campus, but it's not worth it at the expense of the students' rights.
A student passed out literature after class and was later told that she was in violation of school policies, which do not allow for any materials to be distributed in the classrooms... or on much of the campus for that matter.
She had waited until after class to distribute her literature. I don't see anything that indicates that she was being obnoxious in the way she approached the other students. But someone got offended by the topic and complained.
The fact is, during my undergrad days, a lot of what was handed out on campus offended me. And I'm sure that had I given out pamphlets stating my views, it wouldn't have been appreciated by some of my fellow students. Does that mean that it would have been wrong for either of us to distribute that material? No, of course not. Does it mean that I had to accept, read, or keep the material? No.
This school has taken a very unconstitutional approach, probably in an attempt to avoid conflict. I'm so thankful that I went to a school that supported my freedom of speech, instead of trying to suppress it!
I looked at some of the related links and found it humorous in a horrifying way that the school's initial response was to attempt to ban distribution of all literature on campus. Granted, that could cut down on a lot of confusion and reduce the annoyance of having papers thrust at you while trying to walk across campus, but it's not worth it at the expense of the students' rights.
Sunday, June 5, 2011
This one hits close to home...
I live about 25 minutes from Gary, so this article caught my eye. It's not super recent, but happened this school year.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/slj/newslettersnewsletterbucketextrahelping2/889405-477/indiana_district_removes_tyrell_from.html.csp
First of all, in defense of the mother, I have to question why a school would put a book that is reviewed at a high school level into an elementary school. I'd like to know what sort of collection policies they follow in the school system. I can understand her outrage.
I don't agree with her method, though. She should have talked to the school librarian... or someone at the school. There was no reason to go straight to a lawyer. And there was no reason for the lawyer to go straight to the press. That lawyer should have done his homework to discover the school's policies and procedures for challenging a book.
In all honesty, this is a situation that should never have been discussed in a blog, because it never should have made its way to the press. The school dealt with the situation of a book clearly being misplaced. Are the mother and her lawyer out of line for asking that the rest of the collection be re-evaluated? Maybe. It's not really her place to decide what other children can or should read. The situation has all the potential of becoming a witch hunt. But I can see where the school corporation may need to revisit their policies and consider some changes to their selection and placement procedures.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/slj/newslettersnewsletterbucketextrahelping2/889405-477/indiana_district_removes_tyrell_from.html.csp
First of all, in defense of the mother, I have to question why a school would put a book that is reviewed at a high school level into an elementary school. I'd like to know what sort of collection policies they follow in the school system. I can understand her outrage.
I don't agree with her method, though. She should have talked to the school librarian... or someone at the school. There was no reason to go straight to a lawyer. And there was no reason for the lawyer to go straight to the press. That lawyer should have done his homework to discover the school's policies and procedures for challenging a book.
In all honesty, this is a situation that should never have been discussed in a blog, because it never should have made its way to the press. The school dealt with the situation of a book clearly being misplaced. Are the mother and her lawyer out of line for asking that the rest of the collection be re-evaluated? Maybe. It's not really her place to decide what other children can or should read. The situation has all the potential of becoming a witch hunt. But I can see where the school corporation may need to revisit their policies and consider some changes to their selection and placement procedures.
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