Thread: Schools Punish Students for MySpace Content

Originally Posted by W.E.B. Du Bois

According to the article, here's what the school does if it finds troublesome content:


That doesn't require much special authority that no one else has. The only special thing about it, is that the school has the names of the account user's parents. If they all use made up names like we do on USPOL, then I don't even see how they can match an offensive post made by "T-Rex327" to being Sophomore Jimmy Jacobs. Oh well, I'm just bored and that's why I'm posting on this thread.

WEB

Have you ever stopped and looked at MYSpace webpages written by kids? If not, I suggest that you take a look and maybe you'll be surprised at just how non-anonymous they actually are.

More food for thought:

Knoxville Catholic High School principal Dickie Sompayrac, said he punished five students for "derogatory" comments they posted in the fall about others on MySpace.

Sompayrac would not specify how he disciplined the students, what they posted or when they posted it, but he said it didn't matter if they wrote the comments off campus.

"If there were derogatory comments about another student on MySpace, we would not make a distinction between whether or not those comments were done at school or at home, since they are viewable to anyone who goes to MySpace," Sompayrac said.

As the principal of a private school, Sompayrac has more leeway with the law than a public school has, said Mark Goodman, the executive director of the Student Press Law Center, based in Arlington, Va.

Administrators at the public Powell High School recently suspended three students for posing as a teacher and writing inappropriate comments on MySpace, said Russ Oaks, spokesman for the district.

After consulting with the district's security chief, Steve Griffin, and the Knox County Law Department, administrators at Powell decided to suspend two sophomores and one junior.

Their suspensions varied, based on their involvement, from nine to 30 days, Oaks said. Did the school have the authority to suspend the students? Oaks said yes.

"It had an impact on the conduct in the classroom and the order and discipline in the classroom," he said.

The Knox County Sheriff's Office also investigated the incident at Powell. The information now is in the hands of the Knox County District Attorney General's Office, which must decide whether or not to prosecute the students, said Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Ashley Carrigan.

Brenton Thomas, a 16-year-old sophomore at Knox County's Central High School, logs onto MySpace every day after school to "get new friends, meet new people, talk."

He sends messages and photos to his older sister in Hawaii, and he peruses messages from strangers who want to be added to his list of "friends." The friend list - the bigger, the better - is the MySpace status symbol.

On this day, Brenton got a message from a user calling herself "Ms. New Booty." "Your (sic) so cute!! I like this pic! What's up? LoL," she wrote.

Brenton said he didn't worry about school officials looking at his page. "I never really thought about it," he said. "I don't have anything to hide."

The same goes for Gretchen Sutch, a sophomore at Knoxville Catholic who said she visits MySpace "every other day." She added that school officials shouldn't discipline students for what they write at home, she added.

"I don't think it's right for them to do that, if it's not on school time or school property," she said.

http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=16426

Originally Posted by LordLucienUmbra

No. How about being harrassed for months on end until they commit suicide? Of course, suicide is an inability to deal with their issues but IF the students can't be punished for what they right on bulletin boards what options does the student have.

Ignore, leaving the bulletin board, many many choices.

Alternatively create a new sn and be careful who you give it to.


Both far easier then this "Oh no i don't know how to push the block button on aim and I can't make a new email address and i don't know how to make a junk mail filter, im going to go commit suicide!"


...

Originally Posted by pramjockey

Absolutely not. The school has no standing to control what a student does outside of school property or function. If they find something illegal, it needs to be reported to the parents and a proper authority.


Unfortunately, because so many parents dump their children on the schools and expect the schools to raise them, I'm not surprised by this. We really need to start holding parents accountable for their children's behavior.

You are absolutely correct

Originally Posted by Thematic-Device

They're commonly mistaken in some circles.

I can see why. Many have far exceeded their authority.

Originally Posted by jpsartre12

There has been a recent rash of schools that have begun to discipline students for information that exists on their MYSpace.com websites. Do you believe that the school has the right to control a student's behavior outside of any approved school function?
http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/...familyfilter=1
http://www.infowars.com/articles/pol...dministra.html

If it be a public school, unequivically no. It is classical authoritarianism.

If it be a private school, it wouldn't surprise me one bit if parents may have signed over authority to do this.

Originally Posted by LordLucienUmbra

Have you heard about cyber bullies? They use the net to say falacious things about other students and use email as a means of harrassment.

In Strength,
Lucien

Kinda like fanatical right wing trolls on internet forums making shit up for the purpose of harrassing anyone who disagress with them?

Not that I'm accusing anyone at USPO of acting like this...

Originally Posted by W.E.B. Du Bois

According to the article, here's what the school does if it finds troublesome content:




That doesn't require much special authority that no one else has. The only special thing about it, is that the school has the names of the account user's parents. If they all use made up names like we do on USPOL, then I don't even see how they can match an offensive post made by "T-Rex327" to being Sophomore Jimmy Jacobs. Oh well, I'm just bored and that's why I'm posting on this thread.



WEB

I don't think you quite understand what myspace is.

Originally Posted by jpsartre12

I can see why. Many have far exceeded their authority.

Some are simply idiots.

I knew one school which coaxed a confession from a kid that when he decided to quit pot he gave his remaining stash to his friend. They then turned around and handed the "confession" to the police.

So the question is why the school would bother, the admission is not admissable since it was obtained on false pretenses, and there was no other evidence. All the school managed to achieve was to make sure that its students didn't trust the administration.

And if the administration is ever criticized for their actions they simply stonewall them.

Originally Posted by usmc7011

You are absolutely correct

Every great once in a while it happens...