Teh_pantless_hero
04-03-2006, 00:28
With the exponentially increasing popularity of such online communities as myspace and facebook, schools and businesses have decided they can no longer be ignored. Schools are cracking down on myspace and facebook themselves, taking discplinary action against people who make offensive private posts. My school recently released an entire diatribe of how facebook is potentially dangerous and a veiled threat that we are not allowed to post whatever we want on our profiles.
20 students in California just took a hit in the attack on private opinion by overzealous schools. Granted, the kid who posted this stuff could have been charged regardless, but instead he and other kids who viewed his vehement post, were suspended from school.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060303/ap_on_re_us/myspace_suspensions;_ylt=AgPigURc9RFqKw9ETUhQykOs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3ODdxdHBhBHNlYwM5NjQ-
A middle school student faces expulsion for allegedly posting graphic threats against a classmate on the popular MySpace.com Web site, and 20 of his classmates were suspended for viewing the posting, school officials said.
Police are investigating the boy's comments about his classmate at TeWinkle Middle School as a possible hate crime, and the district is trying to expel him.
According to three parents of the suspended students, the invitation to join the boy's MySpace group gave no indication of the alleged threat. They said the MySpace social group name's was "I hate (girl's name)" and included an expletive and an anti-Semitic reference.
A later message to group members directed them to a nondescript folder, which included a posting that allegedly asked: "Who here in the (group name) wants to take a shotgun and blast her in the head over a thousand times?"
Because the creator of a posting can change its content at any time, it's unclear how much the students saw.
"With what the students can get into using the technology we are all concerned about it," Bob Metz, the district assistant superintendent of secondary education, said Wednesday.
Metz said the students' suspensions in mid-Febuary were appropriate because the incident involved student safety. Some parents however questioned whether the school overstepped its bounds by disciplining students for actions that occurred on personal computers, at home and after school hours.
The kid was out of line; however, schools are stepping out of line to censor the private views and opinions of their students by taking academic action against them. Twenty students were charged by the school for committing no offense other than being an aquaintance of this student, as far as can be told by the article. That is not justification for suspension. If this was in the school itself, 20 students could not be suspended for knowing a student who made vicious statements against another student. Schools need to be immediately challenged and checked for their attacks on online communities. It is not their job nor should they even have the ability to censor student's private opinions through veiled threats and punishments. If anything, the schools should be charged.
20 students in California just took a hit in the attack on private opinion by overzealous schools. Granted, the kid who posted this stuff could have been charged regardless, but instead he and other kids who viewed his vehement post, were suspended from school.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060303/ap_on_re_us/myspace_suspensions;_ylt=AgPigURc9RFqKw9ETUhQykOs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3ODdxdHBhBHNlYwM5NjQ-
A middle school student faces expulsion for allegedly posting graphic threats against a classmate on the popular MySpace.com Web site, and 20 of his classmates were suspended for viewing the posting, school officials said.
Police are investigating the boy's comments about his classmate at TeWinkle Middle School as a possible hate crime, and the district is trying to expel him.
According to three parents of the suspended students, the invitation to join the boy's MySpace group gave no indication of the alleged threat. They said the MySpace social group name's was "I hate (girl's name)" and included an expletive and an anti-Semitic reference.
A later message to group members directed them to a nondescript folder, which included a posting that allegedly asked: "Who here in the (group name) wants to take a shotgun and blast her in the head over a thousand times?"
Because the creator of a posting can change its content at any time, it's unclear how much the students saw.
"With what the students can get into using the technology we are all concerned about it," Bob Metz, the district assistant superintendent of secondary education, said Wednesday.
Metz said the students' suspensions in mid-Febuary were appropriate because the incident involved student safety. Some parents however questioned whether the school overstepped its bounds by disciplining students for actions that occurred on personal computers, at home and after school hours.
The kid was out of line; however, schools are stepping out of line to censor the private views and opinions of their students by taking academic action against them. Twenty students were charged by the school for committing no offense other than being an aquaintance of this student, as far as can be told by the article. That is not justification for suspension. If this was in the school itself, 20 students could not be suspended for knowing a student who made vicious statements against another student. Schools need to be immediately challenged and checked for their attacks on online communities. It is not their job nor should they even have the ability to censor student's private opinions through veiled threats and punishments. If anything, the schools should be charged.