[QUOTE]Can a school district punish a student for making derogatory comments about staff members online? Not according to the American Civil Liberties Union, which filed a lawsuit Tuesday against a Minnesota school district and sheriff’s office. In the suit, filed in U.S. District Court, the ACLU claims a 12-year-old student was disciplined by administrators of the Minnewaska Area School District after she posted on [URL="http://mashable.com/category/facebook/"]Facebook[/URL] that she “hated” a hall monitor who was “mean” to her.
In an interesting twist, Facebook’s sign-up policy requires users to reach 13 years of age before they are granted an account. We reached out to Facebook for a comment on the matter, and we’ll update this post when we hear back.
According to the lawsuit, the girl’s principal decided that the Facebook post constituted “bullying.” As punishment, she was given detention and made to apologize.
She then posted another comment, saying that she was annoyed someone had shown her first comment to school officials. This second comment contained off-color language. The school district’s response?
“She was given an in-school suspension and was prohibited from attending a school field trip,” according to the ACLU.
The young girl’s struggle with her school district didn’t end there. The ACLU’s lawsuit says that the girl was later forced by a school administrator to hand over her Facebook and email login information after she was accused of chatting online with another young student about sex. The ALCU said that a local police deputy was present while administrators searched through her online chat record, and that the student’s parents were not informed of the search before it occurred.
None of the posts or emails the school district found offensive were posted from a school computer or on school property.
The ACLU claims the punishments were a violation of the student’s First Amendment right to freedom of speech and Fouth Amendment right to freedom from unreasonable search and seizure.
“Students do not shed their First Amendment rights at the school house gate,” said Charles Samuelson, executive director for the Minnesota branch of the ACLU, in [URL="http://www.aclu-mn.org/news/2012/03/06/aclu-mn-files-lawsuit-against-minnewaska-area-schools"]a statement[/URL]. “The Supreme Court ruled on that in the 1970s, yet schools like Minnewaska seem to have no regard for the standard.”
[/QUOTE]
[URL]http://www.smosh.com/smosh-pit/articles/school-punishes-student-mean-facebook-comments[/URL]
[URL]http://mashable.com/2012/03/08/aclu-sues-school-facebook/[/URL]
[URL]http://www.splc.org/news/newsflash.asp?id=2344[/URL]
This is absolutely ridiculous. I'm looking for better sources at the moment, I'll update op when I find some.
That is fucked.
[quote]The ACLU’s lawsuit says that the girl was later forced by a school administrator to hand over her Facebook and email login information after she was accused of chatting online with another young student about sex.[/quote]
i would have told them to piss off. they have no right to that information.
Surely they can't take action against an incident outside of school? I mean, discouraging it is fine during school hours, but punishing him isn't going to do anything but make him even angrier.
[quote]According to the lawsuit, the girl’s principal decided that the Facebook post constituted “bullying.” As punishment, she was given detention and made to apologize. [/quote]
I can see the reason behind this, but it seems a little silly.
[quote]She then posted another comment, saying that she was annoyed someone had shown her first comment to school officials. This second comment contained off-color language. The school district’s response?
“She was given an in-school suspension and was prohibited from attending a school field trip,” according to the ACLU.[/quote]
Wait what? Why does the school care if she uses language on her own time?
[quote]The ACLU’s lawsuit says that the girl was later forced by a school administrator to hand over her Facebook and email login information[/quote]
This is fucking ridiculous, a school does not have the right to do this unless there is some serious crime involved. Even then, it's sketchy whether it's the school's job or the local law enforcement.
I can understand being scolded at school for stuff like his, but suspension? That's fucking ridiculous. We've had talks about how "facebook dramas are interfering with your learning" and shit, we've had people crying and threatening to commit suicide over 1 little facebook comment. This stuff is actually quite serious but they have no right to just snatch her account and start lawsuits.
public education is fucked in some ways
If a student is slandering another student or staff, sure they can do something about it, but they are definitely not allowed to force a student into giving up private information without parental consent. They took it a step too far, I'm surprised the police officer sat back and let it happen.
And the reason for accessing the student's facebook chatlog is ridiculous, its not illegal to talk about sex regardless of age.
[QUOTE=Quark:;35067726]i would have told them to piss off. they have no right to that information.[/QUOTE]
Even then, what business does the school have to go through your chats?
[QUOTE=Sie-Sveinhund;35067743]
This is fucking ridiculous, a school does not have the right to do this unless there is some serious crime involved. Even then, it's sketchy whether it's the school's job or the local law enforcement.[/QUOTE]
Actually if there is any sort of crime involved it is to be immediately handed over to the law. Even if a student is breaking school rules they can't just ignore someones rights to deal with it themselves.
Why would a school care about a students private life?
who the hell even gives the login information to other people just because they asked for it?
Hell they don't have the right to do such things.
[quote]Facebook’s sign-up policy requires users to reach 13 years of age before they are granted an account.[/quote]
Her account wasn't deleted due to being under aged the first time.
[quote]This second comment contained off-color language.[/quote]
Swearing this time in the second post.
[quote] The ACLU’s lawsuit says that the girl was later forced by a school administrator to hand over her Facebook and email login information after she was accused of chatting online with another young student about sex. The ALCU said that a local police deputy was present while administrators searched through her online chat record, and that the student’s parents were not informed of the search before it occurred.[/quote]
Breach of Privacy, she should not have given it in the first place, nor should the administrators should have obtained such information in the first place without proper proof, approval of parents.
[quote]None of the posts or emails the school district found offensive were posted from a school computer or on school property.[/quote]
Good game.
My friend got a detention for calling someone fat on facebook once. :v:
This is messed up in so many ways. It was suspected that our teachers were masquerading as students on Facebook. The rumours were not confirmed nor denied, but it seemed obvious something was going on.
There are few things that make me mad, but breaching privacy and schools and institutions interfering with individuals private lives and their Facebook posts where they have no reason nor permission from anyone to meddle is one of them.
Sadly, pretty much the same thing happened at my school. Someone in one of the middle schools gave some head to get into a party, and word spread. A few freshmen got in trouble and got detention for posting about it on Facebook.
This is genuinely angering.
Nothing new, some guy at my college got excluded for three weeks for making a facebook post about how PDP (4.5 hours a week of talking about your non existant problems) is a waste of time. Another guy got excluded for a week for complaining about people throwing things off the balcony because it gave the college 'bad rep'
[QUOTE=Mattyyyy;35067931]My friend got a detention for calling someone fat on facebook once. :v:[/QUOTE]
Well technically in my country, you can get sued, if you insult someone in public (insulting on facebook counts as a public insult)
and because its facebook, you have a proof to show, that he insulted you, and everyone can see it (also counts as damage of reputation)
there was a case, where a girl got sued in my country for insulting someone on facebook.
[QUOTE=Quark:;35067726]i would have told them to piss off. they have no right to that information.[/QUOTE]
Holy fuck, this is ridiculous. How is this even remotely defensible?
This is why I plan to insult people via carrier pigeon.
land of the free
Why do schools insist upon being parents?
I pay you.
You teach my student.
end of story
[QUOTE=Sie-Sveinhund;35067743]This is fucking ridiculous, a school does not have the right to do this [B]unless there is some serious crime involved[/B]. Even then, it's sketchy whether it's the school's job or the local law enforcement.[/QUOTE]
Even in the event of a serious crime, they have no right to obtain your login info. If it's a serious crime, it goes to the police, and the police obtain access from the email company, not through demanding the password.
[quote]According to the lawsuit, the girl’s principal decided that the Facebook post constituted “bullying.”[/quote]
In that case, every single comment behind someone's back can be classed as "bullying".
This isn't news. This has been happening for years. Three years ago one student at my school was expelled for threatening to murder a teacher on Facebook and, to be fair, it's not something one jokes about.
why a 12 year old is using facebook is beyond me, what terrible parents
[QUOTE=Lethaxx;35068813]why a 12 year old is using facebook is beyond me, what terrible parents[/QUOTE]
how does that make them terrible parents? there's nothing inherently wrong with using a site like facebook before you're 13
[QUOTE=Deaver;35067736]Surely they can't take action against an incident outside of school? I mean, discouraging it is fine during school hours, but punishing [b]him[/b] isn't going to do anything but make [b]him[/b] even angrier.[/QUOTE]
Its a fucking her, Please learn to read next time.
Post: the ACLU claims a 12-year-old student was disciplined by administrators of the Minnewaska Area School District after she posted on Facebook that [b]she[/b] “hated” a hall monitor who was “mean” to [b]her[/b].
So we can't have opinions now?
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.