The previous article that I posted was an example of an excellent way in which a school can handle the student’s misuse of the internet, here specifically MySpace. Unfortunately, schools do not always get it right and here is an example of that. In December of 2005 several students from a Pennsylvania High School posted fake MySpace profiles about their principal.
All of the posts were mean-spirited; they accused [the principal] of using steroids, marijuana, and alcohol; suggested that he had sex with students; and said that his interests included ‘Transgender, Appreciators of Alcoholic Beverages’
What the students did here is completely inexcusable, and of course they should be punished for it. But, the school, specifically the principal, did not handle it very well either. The school tried to block MySpace, but the students found a way around the block. The principal then cancelled all the computer programming classes as well as denied access to the computers for research for class projects. Finally, the principal discovered who one of the culprits was and
suspended him for 10 days and said that he would be placed in an ‘Alternative Education Program’ when he returned to school.
You would think that that would be the end of it. Unfortunately it only gets worse. Soon, the lawsuits started coming. The student filed suit against the principal for putting his academic future into jeopardy. When that did not work, the family then sued the school for violating the student’s civil rights. Now, the principal himself has filed suit against the students involved
Arguing that his reputation was damaged and his earning potential was affected
I don’t even know where to begin with this one. Clearly the student needs to be punished and I have no problem with suspending the student. However, denying access to the computers to the entire school is not the answer. Catch the culprits and punish them but leave the rest of the school out of it. Also, placing the student in a different program when he returns does nothing in punishing the student, it only jeopardizes him. A completely different issue would be the stupidity of all of the lawsuits that are being thrown around. Stupid things like this should just be thrown out of the court without even given the time of day. An easy solution to the problem would be to punish the culprits, but also educate the entire student body on why this is wrong (even though they should know why) and instruct them on how to properly use the internet; not as a means of hurting other individuals but as an educational tool.
MySpace Prank Gone Bad Leads to Misuse of School Resources, Multiple Lawsuits
April 10, 2007 at 12:43pm CT
by Nate Anderson
