Eden Prairie High School in Minnesota recently reevaluated its involvement in students’ off-campus exploits. Eden Prairie’s principal was mailed a computer disk with pictures of students involved in underage drinking. These same photos had initially been posted on the popular social-networking site Facebook. The principal questioned 43 students, 13 of whom received disciplinary action. Although the activities took place off of school grounds, the pictures were posted online and presented to school authorities, who were compelled to act accordingly.
The age old question arises: Where do you draw the line? The line between school and home has blurred in recent years, becoming increasingly indistinct as the Internet Age progressively develops. The Internet presents a portal, allowing an easy, sometimes dangerous merger of the two worlds. School and home have become extensions of one another. In years to come, schools will more often be confronted with similar jurisdiction issues as the ubiquity of social-networking rises among young children. And schools will more often be pressed to define their specific role in dealing with off-campus matters that somehow seep into school hallways, lunch rooms and restrooms.
Should school officials monitor what students do online? What jurisdiction do they have? When is it a teacher’s job to interfere with students’ online activity? How broad or narrow should involvement be? Most schools restrict Internet access, but still, issues like cyber-bullying occur. In May, a 39-year-old Missouri woman was indicted for her role in a young girl’s suicide after sending cruel messages via MySpace on behalf of her teen daughter.
The National School Boards Association in Alexandria, VA reported children aged 9-17 spend nine hours a week on the Internet, and 96 percent of them use social-networking technology, including text messaging.
I think that is a bit excessive. How can teenagers get in trouble for something which was done off of school property in their own leisure time? I think the “powers that be” let the school authorities discipline the students because what they did was illegal anway. The really should have gotten in trouble for being so flagrant about doing what they were not supposed to.
Although the end result was appropriate for the teenagers blatant actions, I do not think that the board of education has the right to patrol students “personal” lives. That still is the responsibility of the parents.
Incidentially, the mother who assisted her daughter in frightening another young girl into commiting suicide got what she deserved. She was a grown woman and knew better.
Good blog! Sorry for the paragraph. . .