Sticks and Stones
"All they have to do is print it out and they have proof," Milwaukee lawyer Scott Taylor said.
--Freedom of Speech Redefined by Blogs
Back
in my high school days, I remember hearing about an acquaintance who
attended some fancy prep school. One of his teachers decided to look up
the MySpaces of everyone who listed themselves as being a student
there. As I understand, the drama (and suspensions) went on for quite a
while.
For most of those kids, that experience was a needed slap in the face. They had thought they were immune to retaliation. Who was going to come after them? The Internet Police? Try the members of the school board, who were furious about how the students were making them look.
I heard reports like this all through my high school
and middle school career, to the point where I was starting to think
that the girl who posted her opinion on her boyfriend-stealing
ex-best friend on MySpace would probably get in more trouble than
the punk who stole your lunch money. (Looking at my middle school's
track record in handling IRL bullying, I wouldn't be surprised if
someone actually proved this to be true.)
After a student was caught, she would be called to the main office, shown printouts of whatever she wrote, and was given a speech about the power of words. One of the big arguments that the kid would try to make was: "I didn't write it in school, I wrote it at home!" When that didn't hold up, because it never did, the pleas turned less eloquent, to the tune of: "You're all a bunch of first amendment-hating tyrants running a fascist snake pit of a school!"
There's
the difficult part. Where does freedom of speech start and libel begin,
especially when you're dealing with opinions? We can't make a law that
says "use common sense". Schools should be responsible for what kids
write on the internet, because if they're not, who will be? Maybe
they'll succeed in making a generation of adults who understand that
even on the internet, nothing is private. I don't know. We'll have to
wait and see.
Until then, sticks and stones will break your bones and words will get you suspended for two to five days, plus Saturday detention for a month after that, which you can spend writing an essay on Why The Internet is Serious Business.
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Dennis G. Jerz on Sticks and Stones: Good points, Christina. When
Good points, Christina. When a student's thoughtless, rude, or immature behavior hurts their school community, it's common for that student to get a punishment from within the school community.
What kind of a human being would I be, if I posted entries that insulted my students, making fun of their name, their families, their personality quirks, and their insecurities? Who would think it would be a justifiable defense, if I said "I wasn't serious -- I was just blowing off steam and goofing off with friends?"
If you need to vent, do it over the phone, or in person -- just make sure someone isn't behind you making a secret recording of your bad behavior (soon to be leaked onto YouTube).
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/08/31/dem-apologizes-for-joking-about-hurricane/
I think that the internet is a public place, and the notion that what you do on it in private should be considered private is erroneous. If you can view these pages at school, then it makes no difference where you made them since they are disrupting classes. The bottom line is that if you are saying or doing something that needs a privacy setting, you probably shouldn't be saying or doing that thing.