1984 at it’s best
January 16, 2008 by bicej
This article was about a group of student athletes at a high school in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The pictures, on Facebook, depicted them drinking alcohol at a party. I think that this article is helpful for my cause, which is allowing students to use social networking sites and Blog type sites, for two reasons. Because these sites are deemed worthless by most parents and almost all school districts, students have no real positive feedback on them. If students were introduced to these kinds of sites as a positive tool, they would have known about the possible repercussions there are for placing pictures of that nature on the internet. It’s not that I’m condoning underage drinking by any means. I think that these sites are like anything with kids, as soon as it’s deemed “un-cool and dangerous” by their authorities they immediately feel the need to use it to its fullest negative capacity. If we were to allow students the freedom to explore Myspace/Facebook, while still giving them boundaries, I truly believe it could become a powerful educational tool.
The second and more serious argument is where does the right to privacy and first amendment come into play? One statement in this article I found interesting was: “School administrators and the district’s spokeswoman didn’t return phone calls, but students called in by their deans over the past two days said they were being reprimanded for the Facebook party photos, which administrators had printed out. It’s likely, they said, that other students among the 3,300 who attend Eden Prairie will be questioned throughout the week.”
I understand that during the hours that students are attending school they are the schools responsibility and as such lose most of their personal freedoms. But these instances were clearly not during those set hours, so how can a school take disciplinary action on students for off campus discretions? It seems odd that these administrators would search out these social networking sites at night, yet they banish them from the schools during the day. I find it to be hypocrisy. I know that I’m not going into teaching to be a watchdog over these kids’ lives. They already have someone for that, they’re called parents. I know that I would like to someday incorporate technology (Blogs, Social Networking, etc…) into my English classes and I don’t know what I’m going to say to my students when they ask me whether or not they can write what they truly want to write, without the fear of being disciplined.
By Star Tribune News
January 9, 2008
Create a free edublog to get your own comment avatar (and more!)
Jack,
After reading your post I have to say that I completely agree with you when you say that what students do outside of school is not the school’s business. This same logic actually played into my decision when choosing a college after learning that certain private colleges have rules saying that students are not allowed to consume alcohol at all, on campus or off. I felt like this was a total invasion of privacy similar to the way that this school district invaded the privacy of its students.
However, there was one point in the article that raised some a question for me. The article states that one of the students being reprimanded was a lacrosse player who had chosen to sign a pledge not to drink. By signing such an agreement, it seems as if the student has willingly given up his out-of-school privacy. He agreed not to drink, and he got caught in a situation that certainly made it look like he was drinking. Is getting caught by having drinking pictures found online really any different than being caught drinking in person somewhere by the coach or another player? To me it doesn’t seem like there is any difference between the two situations in regards to the amount of privacy that is broken, since by placing photos on the web one is basically making them public domain.
I’m curious if you feel signing such an agreement changes your opinion on whether or not the school has authority outside of school time.
-Mark
Hmmm this is a very interesting subject that you chose. I see where you are coming from with this idea of having rights to privacy but at the same time if a folder of pictures was left on the principal’s desk and it was full of the same photos wouldn’t he/she then be obligated to look further into the matter? It is illegal either way it is just a matter of how much freedom will be taken from the students in order to ascertain details on their after school practices. This is the Patriot Act brought into schools, some people would say it is for the students’ protection while others would argue that it is taking away their rights to privacy.
As to your first point, I think there is a valid point in using those kids as an example for the others. If schools set a policy on the matter and stay very rigid on its enforcement then it can be a very helpful tool. Also clearly these are not the most intelligent students or they would know better than to leave their facebook profile set to where anyone can view it and also for putting pictures like that on the site. This is basically handing the principal that folder full of pictures except it’s worse because it’s being put out there on any desk with a computer. I think that as you have mentioned it definitely can be used to help students learn. I enjoyed the article analysis and look forward to reading more on your intriguing topic.
We touched upon this topic in my ED205 class. I was amazed at how many future teachers in that class felt that it was the schools job to enforce morality outside of school functions. I really don’t see the point in having school athletes sign agreements like were mentioned above.
I do agree that drugs and alcohol are a problem for our youth, but I believe it is the parents responsibility to regulate their behavior at home. If it happened during school or a school function, that is a different story.
If I was teaching a class and someone left photos of a student doing something inappropriate, I would feel that it was my responsibility to inform that student’s parent or guardian. Beyond that, I feel I would be overstepping my bounds.
I would care and I would be concerned, I just don’t think that schools have a right to punish. Except maybe the person who had inappropriate pictures at school….
[...] “1984 At Its Best” [...]