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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Students punished for offensive Facebook page
I'm curious of everyone's thoughts on this?
North Syracuse, New York (WSYR-TV) - One student has been suspended and 30 others at Roxboro Road Middle School are getting detention for contributing to a Facebook group that bashed a teacher.
Some of the comments posted claimed the teacher was "evil" and that she snapped at students for no reason. Others, according to Superintendent Dr. Jerome Melvin, were far more offensive.
"Some very, very derogatory, very insulting comments," Melvin said. "And that's why we took the action we did."
Lee Anderson's daughter got detention for being a fan of the page and Anderson is furious.
"For [the Roxboro Road Middle School principal] to assume that he has the right to step in and discipline my child over something that has nothing to do with school is overstepping his bounds," Anderson said. Superintendent Melvin disagrees. He says the posts were libelous. "A student definitely tried to demean a staff member," he said. "Once you get on something like Facebook -- something that's published -- anyone can take a look." Anderson says he should have been contacted before his daughter was punished and refuses to let her attend after-school detention. Melvin says he has never had to deal with a situation like this before and it is something he will discuss with the school board to determine how it should be handled in the future.
Re: Students punished for offensive Facebook page
I don't have kids let alone teenagers so I'm a bit tossed up on this.
I know kids need to get anger and aggression out. Back in the day we did it with notebooks and venting our issues with friends and teachers in a private way. Kids today use the internet which makes the issue public.
I do think some action has to be taken when students create a fan page that is accessible to general public (which is even on facebook...you don't have to be a fan of the page to see it or a facebook user to access a fan page if said teacher googled their name) that is saying awful things about a person, whether it's a teacher or a student. If this situation where made and the page was about a student...parents would be freaking out and have it pulled down. But because it's about a teacher...it's not as bad? I don't think so.
I think that the school should have taken action to bring it to the attention of the parents, sit down and talk to each parent. Print the pages, have the proof and show the parents the awful comments their darling little kid made. Then make a new rule or update that this kind of behavior meant to hurt a teachers reputation will not be tolerated in the school district and will result in detention or being kicked out if it continues.
Can you image if it goes beyond slander and some kids start saying that the teacher is being sexual and it's not true??? That could ruin a person's life...even if they are a mean teacher...they do not deserve to have their life ruined over some kids who are venting in the wrong way and posting so the whole world can see.
I don't agree they went about it the right way but we have to teach kids in general...this type of behavior is not good and the parents who are not allowing their kids to be punished and I doubt they are punishing them at home are just showing their kids that doing, saying and participating in this type of behavior is ok. Not good.
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At my school our policy is that if facebook bullying is brought into school than we can punish for it. If it stays online than we can't do anything. Meaning that if:
1. it was happening on school hours
or
2. the bullying continues in classes or the student is being affected by it
We actually had a situation this year where something similar happened, but we couldn't do anything because it was not happening in school. Granted the parent who saw it was not happy, but the student didn't know it was happening.
I don't necessarily agree with it,but it's the internet and not controlled by the schools. It's a tricky situation to be in.
I think the parent's reaction is a little disturbing - refusing to allow someone else to punish her daughter when a wrong was committed? The parents can complain and appeal the decision, but I think it's setting a dangerous precedent that "If I get into trouble, I'll have Mom call the principal and get out of punishment." Also, kids today need to learn that what they put online can and often will follow them. It's not an isolated little chatroom where they complained about a teacher, it was Facebook. Everyone has access to that.
That's how my school views it Moxy.
And I completely agree...students need to learn that things will not get fixed by mom and dad all the time!
I agree that it's a tricky situation. I see the point that if it didn't occur on school time, then they have no jurisdiction. I guess at that point, if it does contain untrue/harmful statements about a teacher (or anyone really) it's personal slander/libel and then isn't it just between the teacher and the person who posted it?
It's tough because things that happened when we were kids (teasing, bullying, rumor spreading) were only community-wide- the internet has put a whole new facet on what's otherwise pretty normal kids-being-kids stuff.
Personally, if I was a parent I'd be furious, and probably cut the kid off from internet use at home.
As a teacher, if the comments were just like "oh she sucks" "she's horrible/dumb/hates us" etc. it wouldn't bother me in the least. It's kids venting and being kids. It would get scary if there were other allegations (abuse, sexual misconduct, etc.) So the line does have to be drawn but it's definitely tricky to say where/how/when. I don't agree with detention bc I think it's a silly punishment (always have, always will). We use a "service" punishment where they have to clean, assist, etc. in jobs they dislike. It's a whole lot better, IMO, than allowing them to sleep afterschool for an hour.
That being said, I used "Rate my Professor.com" a whole lot in college to decide who to take classes from.
I think the Mom is just another great example of why kids don't take responsibility for their own actions anymore.
The internet is a public place and this group was most likely open to anyone. I'm sorry, but you cannot slander people in a public way. Imagine if you got online and slandered your place of business or your boss. People are fired over things like that. Imagine if they were slandering a fellow classmate in such a fashion. Then it's called harassment and the school would be sued if they DIDN'T take action. Parents would be up in arms. But it somehow doesn't count if they are slandering a teacher? You can't shelter kids or they'll never learn right from wrong. Ever heard of you've been "docced"?
And furthermore, schools should not have to "check with parents" before punishing kids in an appropriate manner if they are breaking school rules. It takes a village - why have people forgotten that?
My first thought is what would happen if a co-worker bashed another co-worker on facebook? What could the bashed co-worker do about it?
I'd probably just have the students take it down and tell them it's not the forum to let go of their anger. If there were threats to that teacher, then more action would have to be taken.