Comments on: Overstepping our Boundaries?

By: fineartandschools

fineartandschools — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 18:16:31 +0000

Gah! That is crazy. Since when is vampire-y stuff inappropriate ever? Ok maybe for k-2 grades vampire movies might be a little much. But, if I remember correctly I was a vampire for Halloween in third grade. That part is beyond me.

I agree with you completely. Since when does someone who isn’t a parent or guardian allowed to decide what is appropriate for a single individual. Why is she allowed to control what goes on in this girl’s personal life. Now I know some will argue that if you put it on the internet it is no longer considered your personal life. But, even still, I find it pretty creepy that this coach is on girls myspaces looking at what they do in their time away from school.

The only way that I could see any action being done about someone’s myspace is if during school time it was being used. That is the only way it makes sense to me.

By: jeremy battaglia

jeremy battaglia — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 02:44:04 +0000

Wow, considering that I am keeping a blog on banned books and censorship, this is a very interesting post. I would like to address to points here, the first concerns internet behavior. While everyone is free to write or post whatever they feel. I am certainly not suggesting censorship in this manner. I think my position however, after keeping my blog and learning a thing or too, has evolved. I believe in a certain responsibility. As teachers we, more than most, should know about responsible cyber statements. Even the pictures that we post to a site are fair game for anyone. To steal something for Dr. Rozema, the internet is becoming exceedingly transparent. That is to say, anyone can find everything we put up. It is almost as if people can see our key strokes. Whatever we put up there, no matter what the intentions, or who it is meant for. Is fair game and can be tracked down. I think teacher’s have a responsibility to inform our kids of this. So, while this coach could have chosen another course of action, at the very least, I hope instilled into this girl the importance for caution. She may be in a position someday where she finds people far worse than just her coach seeing what she has put up. Improper posts can come back to bite you in far to many ways. This is something we must learn as educator’s ourselves, and also something that needs to be passed on to our students.
Finally, I agree with you about the coach’s actions. You stated, “Who gives this coach the right to decide what is appropriate for a 17 year old girl, who is not her own daughter, to do on her free time?”. This is a critical question regarding censorship. What gives anyone the right to ban anything? I do not think that people possess this right overtly. I do feel, as teachers, we have an obligation for dialogue. While I do not think that out right banning is in order, I do feel that age appropriate discussions should be taking place.
The more articles I read about censorship, the more fuzzy everything becomes. When I first started my blog, I was dead set against censorship. I believe I still am, but I do think we need continuous discussion. I don’t think we should turn a blind eye. Knowledge is the ultimate force to reverse ignorance. But we should not be ignorant about the affects some materials have on immature audiences. I feel that as long as we keep talking, and keep thinking, we will be alright. It is when the dialogue falls silent and absolutes are passed, it is then we are in real trouble.

By: vloedmas

vloedmas — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 21:09:52 +0000

One question came into my head right away. What in the world are these coaches doing, surfing the internet for their students myspace? The very idea of a coach determining what is approprate for a teenager WHO ISN’T HER DAUGHTER is absurd, and bordering on immoral. The parents of this student should have been up in arms, calling for the coaches resignation. To my mind, everything about the coaches actions are completly unprofessional.

By: stacynclb

stacynclb — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 02:20:50 +0000

I agree 100 percent with you on this matter. What position does a coach have to determine what is or is not appropriate for a 17 year-old to have on their Myspace? I would be interested in seeing what else was on the student’s page because if “Vampire-y stuff” is all that the school found that they did not like then they have no right to bother the student. If it was suicidal writings or chats about performing a school shooting then I would understand the coaches concern and sympathize with the whole ordeal. But individuality is no call to discipline a student.

Having an individual personality and different interests is what high school is about. Students are trying to figure out who they are, what they like, and what they want to become. How are students supposed to explore different aspects of the world if teachers and coaches won’t allow them the right to express themselves.

I can’t help but wonder if there was more on the young lady’s page than just the “Vampire-y stuff” because I have a hard time believing that a school would really act solely based on images of vampires and other similar things.

I understand that teachers and coaches want to prevent school violence, student suicides, and underage drinking but at some point we have to ask if we are slowly taking away every bit of the students’ individualities.

By: Alcohol Posts » Overstepping our Boundaries?

Alcohol Posts » Overstepping our Boundaries? — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 04:33:23 +0000

[...] bicej wrote a fantastic post today on “Overstepping our Boundaries?”Here’s ONLY a quick extractThe article did go on to elaborate on problems that other coaches had including their students and alcohol use. I will by no means defend this; these students acted inappropriately and were punished accordingly. … [...]