"Student off hook for Facebook insult of teacher," by Bob Egelko, SF Chronicle, Jan 29, 2011.
Topic: This was an amusing article in that it talked about something almost all students have done at one point in their lives-- call a teacher a name. However, in this case it was very, very publicly done. A student in Sacramento called his teacher a "fat-ass" on facebook and was suspended for a day for cyber-bullying. Later, the ACLU stepped in and after an apology by the student, the school agreed to erase the suspension from his record. This incident highlights a real problem involving shared public domain information, privacy, freedom of speech and school safety. Back in the day, a teacher might have found a disparaging remark on a scribbled notepad or overheard something in the bathroom and meted out the proper punishment (if any). Now, however, with current violence in schools such public expressions of discontent are taken much more seriously. The audience for this article is clearly schools, teachers, students and the general public. This kind of story is clearly relevant on many levels and is sure to come up again in the future.
Here's the URL for that post,
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Interesting article! I agree with the removal of the suspension from this student's record. While bullying is a serious problem and I believe that bullying should not be tolerated in schools, I don't believe that one hastily posted comment venting about a teacher on facebook constitutes "bullying". Bullying, to me, is a repetitive act on one person. Not a single comment made without regard for the consequences. It sounds to me like this student made a mistake, one that he is sorry for, and one that he probably could have learned a lesson about by a simple talking to by the principal, not a suspension.
ReplyDeleteYea, I tend to agree with you. If every kid that said something disparaging about a teacher got suspended, there wouldn't be alot of kids in school. It's definitely tricky trying to navigate social media, the fine line between freedom of expression and some kind of insult. I really don't consider this bullying either, as there was no threat, real or implied.
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