Your opinion on a school issue.....

[Drake]

Originally Posted by DougW

This discussion has led me to believe that we are going to see it happen in the near future. It being the courts being asked to step in and draw some lines in the sand in regards to students, teachers, and cyber-space. I'd venture to guess it'll come about with some pretty serious student on teacher cyber-bullying. And, would definitely take more than some jokes or parody as the Layshock vs. Hermitage Schools case that Blackadar found.

I think you're right, and I think that's actually a good thing. The courts should start drawing some lines so that students, parents and school administrations will all know going in what the acceptable bounds are.

I mean, if a student can be held responsible for something they tweet on their own time and away from school property, why not let the schools monitor their Facebook feeds, blogs and other social media? When a student blogs something that violates the school's code of conduct, then the school can discipline them. (The truth is, we already see this in the "real people" world, right? When you apply for a job, you should expect that anything public-facing in your FB profile is going to be scrutinized. They're going to look at your photos and photos you've been tagged in. As adults, we accept this possibility as a side effect of at-will employment.)

Bottom line here is that if that's acceptable for schools to do, kids have a right to know what the terms of engagement are. So do parents. Everyone knows the rules and can use an appropriate level of discretion in what they put out there. Social rules and legal precedent have taught us how this works as part of the social contract for face-to-face and written communication -- ex., if this student had taken out a billboard saying "FU, Coach Douche", everyone would have expected some repercussions. Figuring out which of those rules apply in digital, online, social media and interwebz communications is a worthy goal.

Next up: Does/Should the school have the right to monitor kids' e-mail communications if the e-mail system is administered by the school? My employer can do it, should schools have the right to do it as well? Do they have the right to suspend a kid based on the content of e-mails between the student and a parent or the student and another adult?

Not arguing either way...just thinking that some precedent clarification on this whole question would benefit everyone involved.

[cougarfreak]

Originally Posted by Drake

I think you're right, and I think that's actually a good thing. The courts should start drawing some lines so that students, parents and school administrations will all know going in what the acceptable bounds are.

I mean, if a student can be held responsible for something they tweet on their own time and away from school property, why not let the schools monitor their Facebook feeds, blogs and other social media? When a student blogs something that violates the school's code of conduct, then the school can discipline them. (The truth is, we already see this in the "real people" world, right? When you apply for a job, you should expect that anything public-facing in your FB profile is going to be scrutinized. They're going to look at your photos and photos you've been tagged in. As adults, we accept this possibility as a side effect of at-will employment.)

Bottom line here is that if that's acceptable for schools to do, kids have a right to know what the terms of engagement are. So do parents. Everyone knows the rules and can use an appropriate level of discretion in what they put out there. Social rules and legal precedent have taught us how this works as part of the social contract for face-to-face and written communication -- ex., if this student had taken out a billboard saying "FU, Coach Douche", everyone would have expected some repercussions. Figuring out which of those rules apply in digital, online, social media and interwebz communications is a worthy goal.

Next up: Does/Should the school have the right to monitor kids' e-mail communications if the e-mail system is administered by the school? My employer can do it, should schools have the right to do it as well? Do they have the right to suspend a kid based on the content of e-mails between the student and a parent or the student and another adult?

Not arguing either way...just thinking that some precedent clarification on this whole question would benefit everyone involved.

And see, that's is where huge problems are going to happen. With the school's legal obligations on bullying, drinking, drugs, abuse, etc., its oing to turn into a "my son was being abused, and was posting about it on Facebook, and the school did nothing. Yet, when he posted something about his teacher, you suspended him." That is why I don't want the school to go down that road as a teacher.

[Drake]

In theory, the courts drawing lines is a good thing for the schools as well as the parents/kids, because then everybody knows where the lines are and what should be reasonable expectations on both sides.

But I think your point is astute: if the school takes action because a kid was bad-mouthing a coach, it creates a reasonable expectation that if a student reports that they're being bullied on FB by other students, the school *must* step in and levy penalties against the perpetrators because they've set that precedent and voluntarily staked out that territory as something under their purview. If you're going to stake out a territory, you have to own it all. You don't get to pick and choose.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by cougarfreak

And see, that's is where huge problems are going to happen. With the school's legal obligations on bullying, drinking, drugs, abuse, etc., its oing to turn into a "my son was being abused, and was posting about it on Facebook, and the school did nothing. Yet, when he posted something about his teacher, you suspended him." That is why I don't want the school to go down that road as a teacher.

Great point here. Really needs to remain a parent issue. We'd be a whole lot better off if more parents took care of their responsibility as a parent and didn't rely on others to teach their kids how to act and live. Or worse yet, look for people to blame when their kid does something wrong.

[DougW]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

....We'd be a whole lot better off if more parents took care of their responsibility as a parent ...........

A lot of good points here I think. But, the above quote sent my brain in a spin. On one hand, absolutely - no doubt about it - more parents need to be more involved. On the other hand, a solid percentage of them don't. A pretty decent portion of our parental society are little more than sperm/egg donors, clueless as to their responsibility to guide and raise their offspring. Often times they're too self-absorbed to get past what they want to do, to help their kids with homework - much less be patient enough to properly raise them .. (ALL RIGHT, ALL RIGHT YOU CAN PLAY WITH THE SCISSORS JUST STOP CRYING AND SHUT THE EFF UP SO MOMMY CAN WATCH HER SHOW !!).

But, the flip side is even worse. Once upon a time we used to say "It takes a village to raise a child". Which, in theory, would be perfect. Imagine parents, teachers, family, police, neighbors, religious leaders, etc .. all working in harmony to properly raise our young. To educate them, to watch over them, to teach them to behave properly. It's really the ideal situation. You'd feel comfortable letting your kid go out to eat with his friends, because you know "Bobby the restaurant manager" would be there.

But, it isn't like that. I'm not sure if it ever really was, or all the "bad" was just less known. But nonetheless, now days, you have to be careful - Uncle Gus, neighbor Clyde, or Mrs. Evans - his 4th grade teacher - just may be raping them. Parents are left with protection issues, and must develop the attitude of "Uh, no .. thank you very much .. but I'll take full responsibility for everything - I'd rather you not even be alone with him".

We're left with a community of people that are afraid to go the extra mile to help our children, and parents afraid that they will - and that's the parents that care. We're also left with a good chunk of kids barely being raised at all.

No, I really don't have a point .. except to say, it's all really sad.

[tarcone]

In Granite City, IL 10 students suspended 5-10 days for inappropriate tweets or retweets.

http://www.kmov.com/home/Granite-Cit...176022181.html

Students said they were having fun and feel that the school invaded their privacy. Students felt they did nothing wrong.

[chadritt]

One was a bomb threat, thats a whole new ballgame. Though again, why do these kids not have their accounts set to private if theyre going to do this stuff?

[IlliniCub]

As someone who works in education (with troubled kids) the kid will love it if he's disciplined, if I gave a big reaction every time I heard F#%$ you or any other insult I wouldn't have a job. Sometimes less is more in these situations don't give him the reaction and attention he hoped for in posting it.

[Barkeep49]

So here's what I get to deal with first thing in the morning. Have a 5th grader who took a picture of other 5th graders on a field trip (teachers had given OK to take pictures), posted the pictures to Instagram, where other students then proceeded to rip on these 5th graders. I'm not sure where the line between school action and not is on this one. I am glad about one thing: nearly all of the students who had been at our school for more than a year had set their accounts to private. Clearly some messages, though not the ones about not being on Instagram, have been heard.

[DanGarion]

This is sort of in the same vein.

Today, twenty students at our local high school got in trouble for wearing shirts promoting gay rights because of the political issue. Yet, they host a pro-life club and allow them to wear shirts. What backwards things have your schools done that made about zero sense? : AskReddit