Schools are becoming more intrusive

[javasaurus]

Big Brother is watching...

A student made vulgar comments about a teacher at a myspace blog site. The school found out and issued a suspension. The student's parents are upset, and the ACLU is involved.

Story link

Any comments?

Comments

[faireraven.livejournal.com]

You know, while people should know better than to post things they can't stand up for later on a public website, there is NO way they can justify suspending her for saying her opinion on a website when she was NOT in school.

If you read the article, it wasn't about the teacher, it was about some girls in the class. Is having a myspace blog and venting about your fellow classmates any different than those stupid "slambooks" that existed when I was a kid?

“I was just telling my friend what was going on in class and how I didn’t like the girls,” said Hazel Scantling. “I know I shouldn’t have wrote it.”

If it was done outside of school property, not on school computers, and was about a couple of girls in her class, how different is it than if she had said the same things about the girls when they weren't in her class?

Even if she had said something about the teacher... She wasn't saying it in class, she wasn't saying it on school grounds, and she is entitled to say what she likes.

Of course, her father has every right to dicipline her for it. *smirk* She is his responsibility until she reaches the age of 18, inside or outside the school. The school is only responsible for what occurs on school grounds.

The school can prevent kids from reading it while in the school. The school can tell kids not to write it when they're on school grounds. But if someone writes something outside of the school grounds, then it is not the school's responsibility to enact the punishment. They can tell the parents, yes, and allow the parents to dicipline as they see fit. But if it did not occur on school grounds or during a school activity, and did not constitute a threat to the schoolgirls she was talking about, then the school basically only has the right to tell her parents.

I may not agree with what the girl said. But the only reason I would be able to do anything about the girl would be if I were her parents. She broke no school conduct rules because she was not in school or at a school event when she wrote it. She broke no laws. If the timestamp and/or IP addresses don't lead to the school, then the parents should be the only ones to dicipline her.

Her father is already grounding her and keeping her away from her computer. That is as it should be.