What is Digg?167 Comments
- TacitusBen, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Another reminder to young people in America that they simply aren't human beings yet.
- hckynck20, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5I think this is wrong the school has no right to govern students outside of school, what happened to freedom of speech?
- lampy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3"Aren't liberal "hurt no one", "make things fair" bureaucracies fun?
The problem with "protecting everyone" and "zero tolerance" is they protect no one and are intollerant. har har har"
I hate to tell you this Verisimilitude, but those who oppose this type of undue punishment and censorship are liberals. The biggest fighters against these type of First Amendment violations is the ACLU, commonly referred to as liberal group. Also, I'd bet if any student got suspended and wanted to get legal advice/representation that the ACLU would gladly help them if they were called. - Verisimilitude, on 10/12/2007, -7/+10Aren't liberal "hurt no one", "make things fair" bureaucracies fun?
The problem with "protecting everyone" and "zero tolerance" is they protect no one and are intollerant. har har har - etjrowe, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Anyone that goes that far to violate the first amendment rights of a young mind, that they are paid to teach, should never be allowed to work in education again.
- 3dge, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3This is not a black and white issue. Although I think that it will rightfully be found that (for public schools anyway) the kids will be protected under the first amendment, blogs can be used to further bully students and harass faculty and staff. Perhaps teachers, administrators and families will begin suing bloggers for defamation and libel. The first amendment lets you say anything you want, but does not protect you from the consequences of that speech.
- mcfo, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4It's all good practice for the students. After all, they are going to be so heavily monitored by their own Govt.'s they might as well get used to it now and learn how to say it without saying it.
- tcybulski, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2A couple kids from my school got expelled last year related to things people wrote on their blogs. I guess parents read their kids' blogs, and found some drug references. They put pressure on the administration to do something about it, which resulted in locker checks and a couple of expulsions. It is now common practice at my school to "friends only" everything.
- karch, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1... dear god, the day i have to watch what i say online or in my blog is .. i can't even imagine. i can NOT stand tattletale parents. jesus *****.
***** ***** *****.
*****. - azwethinkweizm, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I should be able to speak without repercussions! If not, that totally defeats the purpose of the consititution. I should be able to make fun of somebody with no worries. If not, then let's move the ever so free Iraq...
- evilxhwnd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Recently a kid got suspended at my school for making a myspace for one of our gym teachers. he deserved it though, he was using it to make fun of the guy, calling him a homosexual among other things... Even had pictures of the teacher up.
- rossbrown, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I think the main reason they're doing this is because the kids are accessing and updating their blogs AT SCHOOL. Unfortunately it seems logical that they should be able to regulate where they go during school. You know, because it's school.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1if parents are nolonger responsible for their own children...why do they have to feed them?
I mean this is america and if we are going to live in a tolitarian society we need to do it right. Send the kids to homeland security camps...teach them to obey the gov and not question its actions before 13..cut down on all them annoying pesky protests and such.
I hear the chocolate rations are going up again.. double plus good. - Scourge, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I think this is totally a violation of the First Amendment. What's next? Illegal to write in cursive?
- Crazd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1There was a case similar to this in my town in which a student made a personal website and was suspended for it. He sued the school and won big time, over $100,000 if I recall. Although the kid is quite a jerk in person, the court made the right decision and his rights were definitely violated.
Link: http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=12381 - Valnar300, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Hell, a girl in my school got suspended only because she mentioned a teacher's name and that she didnt like that teacher on her blog
- blueice03, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I hate to say this, but in the case of one student writing harassing remarks towards another student and if that harassment causes an unpleasant or unbearable educational environment for the targeted individual, then the administrators have every right to take disciplinary action(s) against the person writing the remarks. Yes, the first amendment guarantees free speech, but only up and until that right infringes on the rights of others. In some cases, I do think school administrators are over-reacting, but in others they are simply doing their jobs. And I also hate to break it to you, but most student handbooks at public high schools in the US have provisions in them that give administrators purview to punish students for behavior or actions done during off-school hours, ie, getting busted for underage drinking.
- jovada, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Only in the US... Am I glad I'm European!
- AlexT, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I'd like to see my school try to suspend me for a post on a blog or a myspace or something. They have no right to govern what students do outside of school. It IS a violations of 1st amendment rights and something needs to be done about it.
- whalesalad, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0http://www.whalesalad.com/archives/peachy
My principle is set to expel me monday I guess, another teacher at school is going to vouch for me because I actually haven't done anything. - aleahey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0guns? yes yes, let them keep the guns. knives? bullying? yeah thats all fine. lets crack down on blogs. blogs and cantennas. we gotta teach these kids right.
- lollerskates, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Wait, wait wait, harrassment? I'm sorry, but nobody has the right not to be offended.
- falloutsyndrome, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0the principal can only tell the parents, then the parents can enforce it . . . if they are doing it at school though they can restrict what they say. THey have keyloggers and mouse trackers at my school, not to mention talkboxes :(
- lollerskates, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Mr. Scientist: Seriously, do you believe in the right to happiness? We can pursue happiness, but we can't have it all the time. If we did, we'd be in an Orwellian society. Being happy all of the time is psychologically unhealthy.
- m00nstone, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Ok, so if I go and write something hurtful about a colleague on my web page. Maybe it's even something offensive about my boss, I shouldn't expect to be reprimanded at work. This has nothing to do with free speech. When are people going to realize that school is supposed to be helping prepare children for the workplace. Wake up!
- JMJimmy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0a US principal was successfully sued for doing this sort of thing.
- JWood, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"So that night I immediately went home and made my xanga. www.alphaclown.com/claydanford I got called to the office and pretty much just shut her up."
cdanford, you got to say what you told her that made her shut up. - JasonHilton, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Heh, I got suspended for 2 days for posting the study guide to a final exam on my website. I asked the principal how they could punish me for this and the answer was "enethical use of computers".
- starman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Yes, students have been doing this for years, but VERBALLY. This is libel. You can't just write something about someone and call it "free speech". I can't sit around writing blogs about everyone on digg, calling them names. Is that free speech? Is anyone here a parent? I am. My nephew's 13 and I told him to be very, VERY careful about myspace. It's one thing when you say something verbally because it's like the game telephone, but when you write something, you have to be responible for it. You don't see the TImes or the Register arbitrarily lying about people's sexuality, or threatening them. Since when is writing lies and making threats legal?
- MonkeyFit, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0First of all, the employees who were fired for negative blogs may have been fired legally. I took a 2 week job directing parking at our state fair and I had to sign a little piece of paper that said they could fire me if I said anything bad about them at all while working for them. Second, public schools can only legally punish for things that happen on school grounds, or at school events. Third, even if they continued the harrasment online, that's what a restraining order is for. You can go through the legal system to keep people from harrasing you. Restraining orders aren't just there to keep people a certain distance from you. They can keep people from legally writing things about you. The public school is a facist dictatorship and continues to overstep it's bounds. Something needs to be done about it. And yes, the principle should be able to post negative feelings about the students on their own blog. except that's a very gray area because you get into things like harassing a minor and also sets precedence that they might be showing favoritism unless they can show they hate ALL students equally. But then they're probably not cut-out to be a principle.
- kosmoX, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Mr. Scientist, offending someone does not violate any rights they have. The pursuit of happiness is in the Declaration of Independence, not the US Constitution. If you are never offended, then you do not live in a free society. It might suck that you are offended, but there isn't a whole hell of a lot you can do about it, assuming it does not fall within the bounds of libel or slander. Calling someone gay is hardly libelous speech.
- dougsmiley, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0So what if students harass other students and teachers on thier blogs. It's a free country/internet, and I and everyone else can call anyone I please a dork, idiot, moron or jerk on my blog. nless the blog post is made ON SCHOOL GROUNDS, they have no right to say or do anything about it.
For example, I think my neighbor is a total jerk and an idiot. Am I going to be thrown out of my neighborhood for saying this? - LankyGoRar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0However crazy governing activities outside of school is, a line needs to be drawn somewhere-- perhaps elsewhere though. Overall, this is just one over-protective principal looking for a pat on the back from the press.
- kosmoX, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0As I said before, the pursuit of happiness is not in the Constitution, its in the Declaration of Independence. As you may recall from your high school civics class, the Declaration did not outline the rights granted to the people, but rather provided a list of grievances against the British Crown.
I also stated that you were allowed to legally offend someone so long as it wasn't libelous or slanderous. The act in questions was neither, and therefore, punishing the student was a violation of her first amendment. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0WHERE ARE THE PARENTS? If the parents are not interested in disciplining their children not to harass other children then I'm glad the school principle had the balls to take action.
- kosmoX, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Mr. Scientist, are you serious? You have the right to the pursuit of happiness? So let me get this straight; if someone makes me unhappy, they have violated my constitutional rights? I'll bet that student wasn't too happy when she was suspended for speaking freely outside of school, especially considering the "intent" of the principal was to punish her. Punishment and happiness don't generally go hand in hand unless you're a dominatrix.
- ShiN3R, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0The "students" we are talking about are minors. That being said, it would be ignorant to think that they deserve ALL the rights that adults have, and there is a good reason for it. It is to protect them. While there are cases that seem to go too far, the big picture is that most kids are protected because of policies like these. In some cases these blogs should be allowed by students, in others they shouldn't. It is a fine line that will be fought in the courts or between the parents and the schools. What many of you seem to be doing is throwing a blanket condemnation one way or the other, which is the exact wrong direction to be headed towards. As far as teachers teaching and not parenting, well, if parents would take more effort in raising their children, the schools wouldn't have to, but it seems that parents seem to be pushing schools in this direction. It I were a school official, I wouldn't ban these blogs, I would just use them as a technique to get more information and keep an eye on the students until they did something wrong or even prevent something from happening.
- kosmoX, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I agree with you jkfan87, it is libel if she had no proof. Regardless, it doesn't matter if he was offended. You can't file a lawsuit for being offended. If the comment made was slanderous(upon re-reading the article I realized the "gay" comment was made during school, not on the blog)then sure, its illegal. She was punished for that, understandbly. However, the comment she made on the blog OUTSIDE of school should in no way result in punishment at school.
- jumjum, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Gotta love New England.
- cawpin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0@ Mr. Scientist - In your 1st & 2nd posts you ruined your argument.
"You can't infringe on others rights and expect to be protected from repercussions by the constitution. Freedom of speech means you can say anything you want, not that nobody is allowed to take offense and act on it. Rights AND responsibilities, folks."
There is no RIGHT to not be offended. I can say anything I want except "I am going to kill the president" and nobody can do a damn thing about it as I am a private citizen. Libel only affects published works. A personal website is not a published work. It is considered a private expression. This is the same as the student saying they don't like black people. That doesn't constitute harrassment, just a stupid opinion. If you don't agree, don't read or listen to it. If you are FORCED to read or listen to it then you would have grounds for harrassment charges. - marymaier, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Schools don't have a right to regulate what students post on their own time. If they're on the site at school, the school should block it. If I ever got in trouble for doing that I would never let the school get away with it, they don't have a right to do it.
- bort, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0This goes beyond high school into college.
My class president was investigated by the FBI for something he said on Facebook. - blueice03, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Harassment is not simply about being offended, it is about being offended with an intent to cause harm and it doesn't matter what YOU think about it, only what the person on the receiving end perceives it to be. This harassment training 101 and a reality even high school students better get used to because almost every employer in this country will make them go through this training.
Someone earlier argued that blogs are not considered a "published work" but rather a "private discussion". I don't think I could disagree more with this position. Unless your blog is password protected and secured with access limited to those that you give it to, it is not a *private* discussion, it is very much a *public* discussion and as such could be argued to be a published work and therefore subject to libel laws. As well, many commenters here seem to gloss over the fact that school administrators are taking action because a student has complained. Once a student makes a complaint to the administration, there is no choice other than to investigate and if necessary take disciplinary action. - compu73rg33k, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Some schools are going to get majorly owned. Unless each student signs a form saying they won't make accounts or posts on xangas, myspaces, etc. the schools are engaging in illegal grounds. I hope the courts tell them to stop and make them pay big time.
-
Show 51 - 100 of 160 discussions
Digg is coming to a city (and computer) near you! Check out all the details on our 
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is