IL Schools punishing students using myspace.com

[slide to the left]

An Illinois school district has created a new rule that will punish students for web postings that depict underage drinking, smoking or other "illegal or inappropriate behavior," according to local media reports.

The move caused some parents to complain that the district is invading the privacy of students and overstepping its bounds, The Chicago Tribune reports.

As parents, "we have to watch what they're doing," Mary Greenberg, who has a son at Libertyville High school north of Chicago, said during a public comment period.

"I don't think they need to police what students are doing online. That's my job."

All students who participate in extra curricular activities, about 80 percent of the district's 3,200 students, will now be required to sign a pledge agreeing that evidence of illegal or inappropriate behavior posted on the Internet could be grounds for disciplinary action.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/Technology/US-school-district-to-punish-students-for-web-postings/2006/05/24/1148150269585.html


____________________

For the record, my Sorority does this. But that is a volentary affiliation. What if someone wrote a blog post and made up something about someone. Or, even better, photoshopped a pic of someone doing something to get back at them??

[TechBear_Seattle]

1. Big Brother goes to school

How in the world can this be constitutional, much less legal? Isn't it very well established that schools may not punish or otherwise take action against anything that does not happen at school or in transit to and from school?

[CarbonDate]

41. Precedent has established....

...that employers can fire workers for smoking on their own time, so pretty much any privacy rights seemingly only apply to the government.

[Gregorian]

2. As if Myspace wasn't punishment enough.

Emo!

Look, if you want a better society, be better parents. And have a society that values culture and education, not money. Idiots.

[Tight_rope]

13. Thank You!

[Coventina]

3. So now public schools get to police private behavior?!?!?

When I was a teenager I went to a public school. The daughter of our minister when to a private Christian high school. She was suspended for a number of days as punishment when the administration found out that she had danced at a private party on a weekend. And no, I don't mean she was an exotic dancer, it was just a teen party. Parental supervision and no "funny business".

But the Christian school made the kids sign some sort of contract that they wouldn't drink, smoke or dance as long as they were students of the school.

But that was a PRIVATE school! Not a public one!!

[WinkyDink]

4. THIS MUST be UNCONSTITUTIONAL!!!!!

What next? Their diaries? Phone calls? Magazine purchases??

Please, someone STOP THESE FASCISTS!!

[Solo_in_MD]

10. Fine line here

The precedent is clear. The school can not punish off site expression such as a myschoolsux.com site or attending political demonstrations. Threats against staff/students or things that are "disruptive to the school" are actionable. There is a fair amount of fuzz in that last one.

I helped organize such a site run by my daughter a while back. Was very careful how it was setup. Private registrar and hosted by an ISP who knows which inquires it can ignore. Logs purged nightly. They came looking but were unsuccessful.

MySpace is similarly protected speech, though it is getting bad press. If like the RIAA they are careful on picking their targets, they will get some to knuckle under, but go after the wrong child and their parent will kill them in court. Some recent judgements are running 50-100K plus lawyers fees.

[uppityperson]

18. Thanks, I forgot about myschoolsux, need to check it out again.

Edited to add, myschoolsux isn't what I remember. It has a page for students, parents, teachers, merchandise. I can't find the complaints or voting on bad schools. Is there another one or am I just not looking right? Thanks.


Myspace:The problem is not kids posting lies online. The problem is why and a bigger problem is nasty adults abusing it. I guess they are hoping if they don't stop the adults, and can't educate the kids, they must just stop the kids?

[Solo_in_MD]

23. I meant "myschoolsux" as a generic

The schools hate those sites and often try to get them shutdown. They try legal threats, DCMA takedown notices, and intimidate students. We saw all of the above. It was almost funny at times. Teachers were told not to discuss it and report anyone they heard mentioning it. Some of its content was brought up during back to school nite and the principal turned several shades of red. A couple of the posters were identified by disclosing excessive personal data, but that was about it. Was an interesting experience in free speech. I have no doubt that the administration would have wreaked vengeance upon her/us had they every found out who was running it.

[warrens]

26. The reason they're doing this is that school fights

Get taken onto MySpace, and they've been posting photos of classmates at parties or half naked or whatever. It's hardly fascism. If you've been on MySpace, it can get vicious.

[DBoon]

5. They are training them for their future adult roles

when the NSA monitors all their Internet activity

[Turtlebah]

6. U.S becoming communist!

all in the name of 'safety'.

[leveymg]

8. NSA already does.

But, it isn't coordinated with local authorities. Yet.

[QuettaKid]

21. But, it isn't coordinated with local authorities. Yet.

That's what YOU think.

;-)

[cushla_machree]

33. law enforcment

already patrols myspace pages.

Myspace is a great way to stay in contact with old friends. But it is ridiculous what some of these high school and middle school kids post on there. Half naked shots in underwear, swimwear, lingerie...drinking beer and whatnot.

Myspace woudl be great it no one under 17 could make a page. Then the rest of us wouldn;t have to deal with their garbage.

[Coventina]

7. Okay, my second post, but a different point!

It's not as if teenagers EVER "brag" about stuff they claim to have done, but really haven't. :eyes:

Just because they may post outrageous stuff about themselves, or make claims to drug, alchohol or sexual activity doesn't mean THEY ACTUALLY DID IT! Hello?!?!?

Does anyone actually REMEMBER high school? I mean, anyone involved in this program, who seem to think it makes sense?!?!?

We claimed stupid shit all the time. If we had done half the stuff we claimed to have done, we would all be dead or in jail by now. On some level, we all knew we were full of shit, but we gave each other props on the good stories we could spin.

[MindPilot]

9. Interesting juxtaposition: My high school yearbook -- 1972

Has a picture of girl sitting on the school's commons drinking a Coors.

I am so grateful to have lived in a more enlightened time.

[Posteritatis]

25. I graduated in '99

A couple months after Columbine, in fact. You wouldn't believe the BS they pulled on our yearbook to Protect The Students. %P

[Scooter24]

11. What would happen...

if a student goes to country, where the legal age to consume alcohol is 16, with his family and friends and they take a photo, with a beer in their hands, and then post it on their myspace upon their return home?

Does the school really have the authority to act upon this photo when the action expressed in the photo was legal when it was taken?

[CornField]

12. Why doesn't the school just prohibit access to MySpace, Xanga, etc.

On school property?

It seems to me that schools have enough difficulty teaching something besides the NCLB tests. They don't need to be wasting their time and energy on something which is done off school property.

However, with the advent of the New Freedom Initiative on Mental Health and the overt push of the pharmaceutical industry (as a part of that program) to both screen and drug as many American school students as possible... not to mention parents just bending over and taking it... very little suprises me anymore.

[slide to the left]

14. IMHO

Once you put your business on myspace, you have decided you don't want privacy. I think it is ok for parents to dicipline their kids when they find out something that they did from myspace, I am gray onj schools though. And this only applies to kids in EC activites.

[Posteritatis]

24. I'm pretty black and white on schools

They don't get to have a say in what students do outside of school hours or away from school functions unless the physical safety of the student is somehow at risk (hearing of abusive parents, etc). This even includes students who are taking part in extracurricular activities. It's none of the school's business.

Period.

[AzDar]

15. There is a H.S. here in Phoenix (Paradise Valley, I think), preparing

to administer breathalyzer tests to all students attending Prom and Graduation ceremonies.
I have to stop watching the local news, it's constantly causing my ulcer to flare up.

[RebelDawg]

20. I see no problem

with High Schools administering BA's to kids going to and from school functions. What these kids do online outside of school is no business of the governments. I guess the schools test scores are fine and there isn't anything they need to improve on so they have plenty of time to spy.

[tammywammy]

30. I had to do a BA for prom

before the dance and before the school sponsored after-party. I graduated in 1999, and they had been doing the BAs for a few years by then.

There was also a rule, once you leave the event, you couldn't come back either.

There was plenty of warning that you'd be required to do it...and there were quite a few students that didn't attend the school-after-party because of it as well.

[Miss Chybil]

16. Kids who use drugs, alcohol and sex as entertainment

are the very kids who most need extra-curricular school activities as an alternative to such behavior. Why do schools need to go looking for reasons to exclude them? If they participate and act appropriately during the activities, what they do outside of them is no business of the school's.

Remember, it wasn't that long ago, girls were expelled from school for becoming pregnant, thereby lessening their chances of providing themselves and their children with an above-poverty-level life. This, in turn, made them and their children burdens of the state. Society must learn to be inclusive of those who need it the most. Turning kids out on the street only increases the probability they will become a danger to, or a burden on, society.

[Odin2005]

17. This sets a bad precedent.

Pretty soon our employers will clain the right to dictate our personal lives, hello corporate serfdom.

[lolly]

19. Schools respond to hazing stories

I think this is primarily a response to the recent rash of hazing stories and pictures in the news--the website Badjocks has made quite a bit of hay over pictures of team hazings posted on various open websites.

It's brought a lot of embarrassment to several colleges and a few high schools, and I think they're trying to forestall this.

I have mixed feelings; if you've seen some of those pictures, you know they are clearly not the sort of thing 16-20 year olds should be posting. Some could seriously damage future employment prospects; at the very least, they could cause major embarrassment, and kids that age don't seem to have the good judgement to keep such things off the web. For their own good, students should be discouraged from posting this sort of stuff.

I don't think I agree with banning them from ec activities--I think that causes more harm than good. Schools should work harder to prevent the hazing in the first place. Most seem to look the other way until the school gets bad publicity. Maybe schools could also educate students a little more, since kids that age seem awfully naive about the consequences of posting semi-naked picture of themselves with obscene messages written all over their bodies as they chug beer.

[Protagoras]

22. " or inappropriate behavior"?

gotta wonder what the criterion for that is. For instance if 50%+ of the students in that school were to all post on Myspace.com "MY SCHOOL IS RUN BY IGNORANT FASCIST ASSHOLES", would that be inappropriate? would the school close down due to lack of students?

Young people have been creative in the past in the forms of their protest and often suprise us with their solidarity to a cause. MIght be interesting to see how they push back on this one to test the boundaries of that "inappropriate" behavior.

Then again it might be interesting to see our society as a whole start to push back against these kinds of tactics. Hope we see it soon.

[JerseygirlCT]

27. The parent is right: this is an issue for them to deal with, not schools

If it's not happening on school property, or under official school auspices (like an away game, perhaps), it's none of the school's business, period.

This totally usurps parental rights, and it's a total invasion of privacy.

[robbibaba]

28. Yet another great reason to unschool.

The school system was set up to destroy the family and to make children stuiped. So far it's been an amazing success. Let's stop pretending that school is good for kids. Get 'em out of there.

[Book Lover]

35. Welcome to DU!

Are you familiar with the Homeschooling Group here on DU? We have a spectrum of folks who home- and unschool (including one who uses the handle "unschooler"!)

[Bjornsdotter]

29. My kids attend school less than a mile

...from this high school. I don't see this flying in this district; the first time a kid is punished for something on My Space the shit will hit the fan.

So I think I'll just sit back, watch the fireworks and :popcorn:

Cheers

[Rex]

31. I'm sure this will give a tickle to the NSA.

Just kidding agent Mike!

[Placebo]

32. This is just ridiculous

The authority of the school ends at the door. What a student does in their private social life is no business of the school's and shouldn't put them at risk of punishment.

Ugh, this is just more Nanny State "Big Brother" unconstitutional garbage.

Why are so many people so nosy? Can't they just mine their own business? Jesus.

[donco6]

34. Oh, come on . . .

ONE school district with all of 3,200 kids imposes a stupid rule. . . and your head reads "IL schools"? And then the readers just assume that all schools everywhere are doing this?

I can assure you that my district has neither the time nor inclination to do any such thing. This is just fucking flamebait.

[Posteritatis]

36. It was in Illinois; it affected more than one school. Headline fits.

I don't see the problem, really; this isn't even a unique sort of thing these days. If the readers assume they're all doing stuff like this, it's because a lot of schools across the US and Canada are. They tried in my neck of the woods a few years ago and it didn't work, but you can bet that with the FUD levels about Myspace the past month or two, that'll change in a lot of places.

(And moving a thread from LBN to a state forum? That's a bit weird.)

[donco6]

37. In LBN where it was originally posted,

the titles have to match the title of the article you're linking to. That's what I was referring to.

[Posteritatis]

38. Ahh; I saw another article where that *was* the headline. (n/t)

[Radical Activist]

39. The media has a mini-obsession with MySpace.

"We must fear what we don't understand!"

[CarbonDate]

40. Here's a crazy thought:

Why don't the schools just inform the parents if they find something like that out? Isn't that how they used to handle stuff like that? :shrug: