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Middle School Suspends 20 for looking at offensive MySpace AT HOME

hosted.ap.org — Some parents questioned whether the school overstepped its bounds by disciplining students for actions that occurred on personal computers, at home and after school hours.

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  • roflcopter, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Now although I think some of the kids deserved to be suspended(that was a very mean thing to say) I still think that it is stupid that so many others were suspended JUST FOR VIEWING! Come on people...
  • Grodius, on 10/12/2007, -1/+20Now I digg this. I was almost expelled from high school/arrested for being a moderator on forums where people were making fun of a kid. Since I was an authority figure, the comments made were my fault even though I deleted them as soon as I saw them. Old people need to either learn more about INTERNET or just stay out of kid's business.
  • Amishplumber, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1How stupid can people get, they souldn't have suspended 20 and looked at expelling 1 of them, but instead took the one who posted the threats to the authorities (as this has nothing to do with what happens at school) and left the others alone.
  • Arkitan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4This is insanity
  • tdkyo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7The expelled kid deserved it, but the 20 suspended students!? That's crap. Viewing something shouldn't lead you to in trouble unless classified by the U.S. Federal Government.
  • domnivore, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This just gets a "Whaaa?"
  • dirtyfratboy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Holy mother of god. That one kid is a loser, but the punishment for the 20 is ridiculous.
  • Dog_Paddle, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2This is bullcrap. For all the school knows, this could just be a joke/inside joke amongst them.
  • antron, on 10/12/2007, -0/+20Thoughtcrime punished.
    Doubleplusgood!
  • Bonobo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5lol tewinkle middle school
  • MSIGuy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12It doesn't surprise me. I got suspended for a week after a kid punched me in the face, I didn't hit back. All that taught me was, might as well hit back.

    I don't think the kid that made the comment should get any consequences at school, if we start doing that, what's next, detention when someone swears at home?
  • antipro, on 10/12/2007, -2/+24man i remember the good ole days when MySpace was just for hooking up with 14 year olds

    now its full of hate crimes

    way to ruin a good thing
  • sparkmonkeyz, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0This is bull, hey school, im most likely going to be looking at some porn later just like every other guy, try to catch me.

    I kind of think that these kids are flippin retards if the school found out about this. Doesnt any one know how to "tools> clear private data". MAN!!
    • ccanni1028, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Clearing private data at home won't do anything. This is related to cops/schools using Facebook to punish people. They are overstepping their bounds but nobody is stopping them.
  • Pizon, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Talk about assanine. California ever ceases to amaze me. Look out for the thought police and make sure you don't do anything that might be considered double ungood.
  • Scik, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2How far does the hand of the schools reach? Honestly. The police can't even arrest you for something you have a picture of you doing or saying something?
  • drbroccoli, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5"Thoughtcrime punished.
    Doubleplusgood!"

    Exactly.
  • olegk, on 10/12/2007, -4/+3Next time they should put those little bastards into high security prison for 10-15 years. That would teach them a lesson.
  • mrman5917, on 10/12/2007, -8/+3How did they overstep their bounds? If the kid had done something and it came out the school knew about it and did nothing everyone would be calling for the school's heads. Digg users are so stupid sometimes...

    +Inaccurate for a stupid description...
  • snefsky, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1*sigh* another step towards dictatorship
  • jk_baller23, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Hmmm, wow is all I can say. Why 20 and not the 1 who posted it? I guess seeing something is just as bad as writing/posting it.
  • fishindiesea, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7its happened at my school. our county started a "NeXt Generation Learning Initiative" which gives all 9th graders at my magnet school laptops. and yes the spelling is NeXt lol. but the more enterpisng kids crakced admin passwds needed to install AIM and things on the comps. so te school responded by re-imaging the laptops to take screen shots every 10 min, store it in a partition and then next time you log on to the school network, it uploads it to a server. even tho myspace is blocked, trying to get to the page gets u "flagged" for suspicious activity. kids have been suspended for going to google cache of myspace and accessing login there. also proxy avoidance sites are flagged aswell. we tried setting up a network of our own in our lockers and place around campus, but its too expensive for 9th graders and easy to find. kids have been suspended for playing online g.ames and we are forced to type with periods in between words to stop the filter.

    sorry bout the life story but this kinda brought all this up.
    reply back for suggestions and comments thnx
  • mrpippy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1How can the school prove that it was actually those particular kids who saw it? What if they had just left their browser open, and their brother came and joined the group or something? A friend of mine from Costa Mesa said that Tewinkle is a ***** school...this just proves the point.
  • ThaCapn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The creator of the group was stupid for owning up to it. He could have denied it all day long and there was nothing the administration could do about it. A year ago I created a forum for my highschool (www.lourdes.suddenlaunch3.com) and when the administration found out (after a full semester) I archived the forums, deleted everything viewable, and put a note up from a made up student. Never admited to it and I never got caught, even with 100+ members.
  • CompIsMyRx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4The ACLU should have a nice, long chat with this school.
  • kyrobeshay, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0My school got the FBI to hunt a friend and I down for hacking into the school website, an all boys catholic high school, mind you, and defacing it with 'inappropriate' images. We didn't walk at graduation. Good thing we weren't expelled, though.
  • berean, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1@snefsky

    Dictatorship would be better than democracy. Democracy is what's led to these problems, not dictatorship. And, actually, you're probably referring to either fascism or an oligarchy, not a dictatorship. No matter what, though, I think a dictatorship would be much better. We wouldn't have stupid people like this in power. 20 kids suspended for looking at a website at home? Appeal to the dictator, he kicks the ***** out of the morons who suspended the kids, and you're done.
  • ko8e34, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0This isn't crazy. I got a bomb threat at my best friend's school through MySpace and told her to report it to the counselors and the kid got expelled. That is serious ***** guys
  • brandonhines, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0They were all members of a group that said "I Hate XXX" with some cursing at the end? If anything, that's a matter for police (read: hrassment). It has nothing to do with the school.
  • CrimsonBlur, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10There is no argument or debate here, the school DID overstep its bounds. No school has any authority over anything going on outside of school except for a very limited amount of moral issues like being required to report physical abuse at home, etc. to the authorities. Even if this did fall under that, the school can't take any action against the student, the most they could do is notify the authorities, and in this case the police would probably say, "So? What do you want us to do about it? Kids will be kids..." The kid might have "deserved" to be suspended, but that doesn't give the school the right or authority to do so, and suspending 20 people for viewing the material is just grossly excessive and idiotic.
  • kevbryant, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0my god, nothing is sacred anymore, burn these people please! I am willing to help...digg we must do something! anyone have any ideas, what can we do
  • saikojay, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1what happened to the "Bill of Rights"?
    It's been violated by the government many times
    and then they wrote this "Patriot Act" which defeated the whole purpose of the "Bill of Rights".
    I thought the Bill of RIghts guarantees freedom, but somehow I seriously doubt that it guarantees any free rights to us anymore.
  • carrotopp13, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3The legitness and seriousness of this story are ruined by the fact that the kid went to TeWinkle Middle School...
  • Johnny1337h4x0r, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1This is the same reason Jack Thompson gets any air time at all. (before some dumb ass starts posting about how this has nothing to do with video games, I'll clarify: the point I'm trying to make is that people are ignorant)
  • Lumiras, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1While I do belive that MySpace is a breeding ground for idiots and useless arguing and fighting, this is a bit rediculous. Yes, the person who posted these threats should have gotten in trouble, that's true. But, if just looking at words on a screen has become a crime, it is truly a terrible day
  • Drahknon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The girl's parent's should have sued under the state's terroristic threat statute. That's why those laws were created.
  • llamagod, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1who wants to take a shotgun and shoot the people who suspended them over a thousand times in the head? I DO!!!
  • kyrobeshay, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@crimsonblur

    Yes, they did overstep the boundary, but I wouldn't go so far as to say the school had no authority over anyting going on outside the school. I'd say they do in the case of the possibility of a student being hurt by another. To me, this sounds like typical middle school chatter, like saying i hate that guy and wanna shoot him in the face. But, I could see them wanting to take a preemptive approach.

    On a lighter note...anyone else chuckle at the name of the middle school? TeWinkle, hehehe.
  • SniperGX1, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Insane.... if that happend to my kids I would beat the principal with a lead pipe
  • Pureeviljester, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Well, I don't think it goes as far as violating our bill of rights. But the school is butting their nose in where it doesn't belong. The parents should be disciplining their kids and if the parents don't fight the suspension then that's their problem.
  • ihybridora, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Can they do that? I know know it would maybe be ok to do that if the school was in danger or threaten. if this is some other stuff that relates to killing or sucide as a joke. that should be left with the local police.
  • Elxx, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Haha, that middle school sucks at the Internets.
  • raccettura, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3This isn't unusual

    Most schools will suspend students if they get in a fight outside of school (even if it's on a weekend, off school property at a non-school related function). Almost definately if the cops are involved.

    Sad how schools take that upon themselves.
  • crazyfan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1There are details missing from what happened in the article, it has to be.
  • flap, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1*fishindiesea

    I suggest you start passing handwritten notes to eachother and post photos of people on a wall somewhere...see what the school thinks of that, I would be interested in the response seeing as they seem to control computer land now.
  • BlindIrishman, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0"The legitness and seriousness of this story are ruined by the fact that the kid went to TeWinkle Middle School..."

    I concur
  • maxkelley, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2This is ***** wrong. absolutely wrong. Schools do NOT control your life, and if they do, they shouldn't. The internet was created as a means of expressing yourself freely. If someone does not like what they're seeing, move on to the next site. You have billions to choose from..

    This happens all the time, middle schoolers need to vent their stress, and at least they're not doing it in front of the person verbally, or worse, physically.
  • absentmindedjwc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Last time I checked, there is a little sentence in all middle school and high school student rights and policy booklets that says: while you are off school grounds, you are representing your school. This is crap, but in their jurisdiction.
  • aaplmacguy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8"This is bullcrap. For all the school knows, this could just be a joke/inside joke amongst them."

    Doesn't matter at all if it's an inside joke. You don't get to say anything you want, attach a just kidding, and call it OK.

    Punishing the kid who made the threat. The school was dead right.
    Punishing the kids who just saw it. The school was dead wrong.

    In my time I suspended two kids for threatening another kid. I didn't suspend everyone in earshot who heard the threat. Nobody was stupid enough to say, "Yeah, and I'll help," otherwise I'd have suspended them too.
  • rhawk301, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Another example of our public dollars at work. Where were the parents here? It seems to me this boy who wrote the comments is pretty whacked. He needs discipline in a lot of areas, but probably not computers. I think myspace should be applauded for bringing out this boys real trouble. If it was not this forum, maybe something drastic would have happened.

    Schools should NEVER be allowed to intrude into the private lives of our children. At best they can send letters, and have parent teacher conferences. When at school, our kids are theirs, at home they are ours. Lets never give that up, fight, fight, fight until that is made perfectly clear. If this was my boy, I would have fought the school to then end on privacy, but get counseling for my child.
  • Lumiras, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0It's just so awesome that so many people are trying to counteract the actions taken about violent threats with their own violent actions. Really shows the maturity of the community.

    I agree with drakhnon, the original poster should be charged with making terrorist threats, it's as easy as that. No need to kill people who suspended your kid
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