Should Schools Be Able To Punish Students For What Is Posted on MySpace
I just read a news article from WLKY about a Kentucky school district that is planning to punish students for MySpace postings. The school board put the policy in place to combat cyberbullying, but many are already questioning it’s first-amendment ramifications.
“The government or school authority now is attempting to regulate speech that is occurring off-site or off-campus,” Sharp said. “The analysis for the courts will be whether or not the school can reasonably forecast a disruption of school activities because of the speech.”
Personally, I do not agree with the Bullit County school board AT ALL! It is not the school’s place to be monitoring students’ MySpace usage. The school’s job is to teach students – not monitor their extra-curricular activity.
MySpace, Facebook, and all other questionable sites should not be accessible from school computers. It is up to parents to monitor their child’s online activity and if their child is being threatened during non-school hours, then they need to approach local law enforcement – not the school!!
Instead of wasting tax-payer dollars monitoring online activity off-campus, the schools need to ramp up their technology programs and teach students how to use technology in their daily lives – responsibly. Chances are, most of the students in any given high school across this country are more tech savvy than the teachers in charge of their education.
Maybe the students and the teachers need to be working together to learn how to use MySpace, Facebook and other social media tools to enhance the educational experience rather than be so paranoid about the whole thing.
What’s your take? I would love to hear from parents, students and teachers!!
We work with teenagers at church and we get to see some of the drama that comes from myspace. I can only imagine how much drama and trouble there is in schools because of the messages sent. I’m sure the guidance counselor stays pretty busy dealing with students complaining about it. I don’t know that I agree with the schools, but I’m sure that they are starting to get involved because it is causing such a problem.
I think the reasons that schools are taking matters into their own hands is because they realize that a lot of parents are either don’t know how to check on their kids’ MySpaces or they just don’t care.
I think that there is (unfortunately) a lot of parents that don’t know or/and don’t care about what their kids are doing online. And lot of them are bullying other kids, mostly from their school circle of “friends”. Therefor, I think its good that schools will have some control over that. Off course, it will also be very important to have a certain line which some can or can not cross. I agree with you that there should be education in school on how social sites could be used in good way… (sorry for mistakes in grammar, english is not my native language)
I have very mixed feelings about this. A few years back, my stepson was called into the Principal’s office and questioned about an accusation that he’d thrown a snowball at a classmate (who was our neighbor) in front of our house outside of school hours. My response to the Principal was, “And that would be your business because…?” She didn’t have an answer and that was the end of the matter.
Still, in the kind of situation mentioned in the article, I can see that schools and parents of children on the receiving end of threats are in a bind–what if your child was threatened repeatedly outside of school by a child who sat next to him, shared his lunchtime and recess, and rode the same bus with him after school? Mightn’t you feel that the threats made outside of school might be carried out in school or on school grounds, thus requiring some kind of action from school authorities?
I’m fairly sure that schools don’t have the authority to punish students for actions outside of school (and shouldn’t), but neither do I think it’s realistic to expect them to ignore dynamics that extend beyond the schoolhouse doors and right back inside the next morning.
I’m not particularly confident in parents these days frankly. I think there are millions of kids burdened with uninvolved and checked out and clueless parents. The schools are in the best position to do something about the problem.
Certainly I’ve think some of this stuff DOES go on during school hours – for instance taking pictures on a cell phone of undressed girls in locker rooms. The picture was taken at school. Perhaps it was posted after school on MySpace, but it’s the school’s problem.
I think it would not be prudent for the school to ignore these types of issues. If they ignore it, what’s to stop the consequences from occuring in school? Consequences like fights, violence, poor grades, Columbine-like events. The schools are dealing with the consequences of children’s behavior so they should be involved in prevention.
If they are forced to educate children who have behavior issues (obviously you won’t get in trouble if you’re behaving appropriately on MySpace) under equal protection laws, then why shouldn’t they be allowed to require a certain decorum or behavior from students and parents?
There is no self-enclosed environment – certainly we shouldn’t expect schools to be self-enclosed. I’ve heard of employees being punished for stuff that gets put on MySpace. It’s pretty similar – how is that any of their business? It effects their reputation that’s how.
Kids without consequences grow up to be bad adults. That creates negative consequences for society in general, I think.
Tracee Sioux
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I think schools should be able to punish when and if the parents won’t. Cyberbullying should be considered school related if the relationship between the children stems from their going to school together.
We have in recent years too narrowly defined what it means to educate our children. Education must extend beyond academics and into character and moral development, and schools ought to participate in that broader definition of education.
Unfortunately, as has already been pointed out, not only have schools been pushed out of the character-development arena, but there is also a dearth of parents willing to step into the void for which they have lobbied.
It is absolutely a school’s place to work with parents – and if necessary in spite of parents – on the character development of children.
In the end, it’s the parents’ business what their children are doing off-campus. I don’t like this, simply because it’s a violation of the First Amendment, not to mention the myriad other inconsistencies that would arise. How do you prove that the accused child actually made the change? Do they really think middle- and high-schoolers routinely keep their passwords secure? Are the schools going to somehow collaborate with MySpace to obtain IP addresses, login histories, dates, times, etc.? I think not.
I am an actual student so it’s fair for you to hear my opinion. I go on myspace and on bebo and I will admit there is a lot of bulling going on but it’s nothing to do with the school/s. Sometime some of us manage to get on myspace or bebo in school but none of us are stupid enough to cause trouble when there are CCTV cameras and teachers around. If anyone would do anything it would be from home or maybe a a public place with computers like a library, so if anyone should be checking up it’s parents and librarians!
But I do think that children do need privacy because it’s REALLY annoying having my dad come up to check my computer every 5 minutes, especially when he know I wouldn’t be bullying or talking to strangers!
Oh and by the way after saying all that ^^, you’d never guess that I’m only 13 would you?!
You have a good point, Lowri, right up until that last paragraph about you not talking to strangers and bullying. Kids, like adults will say one thing and do another. At 13 I told my parents that I wouldn’t smoke cigarettes…and I did. I told them that I wouldn’t do a lot of things that I still did.
It’s not that your father doesn’t trust you, it’s that he doesn’t so much trust the other people out there. The internet is a big wide place for a young mind to be wandering and your father is just doing what every parent should, protect his child from harm no matter what form it comes in.
Hi, I am a student at central visual and performing arts high school. I personally have a myspace page and i dont agreewith this at all
now schools should be aloud to control the usage to a certain extent like blocking from school computers but at home is our choice
this violates freedom of speech
OK… This is the second time some has brought up the First Amendment. How does a school district’s decision to monitor and regulate the speech of its students have anything to do with a limitation placed on Congress? The First Amendment restricts Congress, not a local school board.
Lowri,
You should thank your lucky stars that your dad cares enough to find out what you are doing. That’s his job. You’re lucky you matter so much.
Student Speaking no one has a “freedom of speech” to harass or threaten or bully. Not kids, not grown ups. There are actual laws that prohibit threats, stalking, and harassment of other people.
Tracee
I am a teacher and also a parent of a teen. I don’t think it is the domain of school to be monitoring students social networking activities. I believe schools should be educating students about the rights and responsibilities of people online though. I would also hope that schools could begin to harness these potentially educational tools and inspire students to use them creatively and intelligently. Many of the kids I work with have invited me to read their ‘myspace’ because they are proud of what they have created. We need to aim for the positive behaviour as in all areas of life.
Yes, when I was teaching, students liked the throw around the “freedom of speech” so that they could be rude and disruptive while I was teaching. They didn’t seem to get it that they were infringing on someone else’s right to learn.
Should the school also have access to students phone bills and be able to record conversations? Bullying did not come about as a result of myspace and will not leave when the myspace fad is over.
End of story, parents need to be parents, teach their kids right from wrong.
schools are constantly putting their noses in bussiness that isn’t theirs. some teens eggs someones house, the person calls the school and they get detention at school for it…..same thing with the internet, but even then, ITS THE INTERNET!!!!! its supposed to be a place or free speech!!
Free speech doesn’t mean you’re free from the repercussions.
Yes, you have freedom, until your acts inhibit someone else’s rights. You have the right to free speech, but if you stand up in class and say whatever you want, you are taking away the rights of the other kids in the class to learn and the teacher’s right to teach. Actions do not come without consequences.
I beleive that kids online activites during non-school hours should be up to the parents and the local police to enforce the rules. For school computers during school time it should be up to the schools to set the policy. If schools wish to block access to MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, Bebo, Hi5, et al during class hours or on all school computers that decision should be up to the school. The same should apply for parents who wish to block access to MySpace at home.
I feel that a lot of this cyberbullying is caused by a lack of manners and etiquette among the teens, which I think should be taught in school. I think it would be good for kids to know the dangers of bullies and sexual predators, as well as understand privacy online. I do beleive that internet safety should be taught, as well as parents having an active role in making sure kids are safe online.
I do not agree with school administrators censoring what kids do off hours online, nor should they have the belief that kids be idenmified every second they leave home. A kids free speech right should be upheld.
i feel that myspace is just a breeding ground for nasty rumors and such for instance i personally had a problem with the school on this when a teacher overheard me talking about columbine and how horrible it was (this was back when we had those 3 shootings in a week.) the teacher took it to mean that i was planning a shooting and wrote up a statement. i of course was arrested and was only cleared when no less than 7 people told the dean that i had not been planning a shooting but rather that it was an unfortunate part of life today.
this leads into the myspace part after that people started talking about how i was wrongly accused of planning a school shooting which made it onto mayspace and eventually snowballed into me having purcured weapons and that i had a hit list and somehow was going to be shooting up the school any day now etc.
it is crazy how it can go from a misunderstanding to viliont criminal that will get taken away by the cops any day now
i love myspace and face book so screw yall