Get out of my ‘Face’
For high school students only two things matter: school and Facebook, but mainly Facebook. Here lately, though, those have been a dangerous combination.
Recently, a Minnesota high school punished 13 students for photos posted on the students’ Facebook pages. The images showed underage students in possession of or using “illegal substances.” However, just how school administrators obtained such photos is still unknown. The larger issue, though, is not their interception of the images. It is their crossing into the students’ personal lives and affairs that is so shocking. And, perhaps, illegal. What students do outside of their school-legal or illegal-is totally independent of their school. Therefore, it is not the educational institutions’ right to take punitive actions against students for activities done outside of the school. (To read the news article, click here.)
Think about the pictures on your Facebook account right now. Would you want your school principal to see them? If not, you might want to consider removing the images, because if this precedent sticks, your principal could suspend you for what you were doing when your friend snapped those pictures. Internet is a public domain, and other Web users are likely to view your online content. However, school administrators, who should have more important things to do that peruse the pages of Facebook for inappropriate pictures, seem to be doing just that-viewing your online content. And punishing you if they deem the content inappropriate.
Not only is this an issue for students, but it is also an issue for potential employees. As businesses continue to become more tech-savvy, they are increasingly looking to the Web to determine which applicant is most qualified, which applicant represents the company the best, which applicant doesn’t party hard on the weekend. Or at least the applicant who doesn’t post pictures of himself partying hard on the weekend. Think these incidents are similar? Not at all. There is a great difference between an employer looking on Facebook to determine the best applicants and an administrator looking on Facebook to determine the worst students.
Those applying for a job go on their free will to a company, knowing that their potential employer may use all avenues to determine if they are best suited for a position. The applicants know that they must act in the best manner to represent their company if hired and that pictures of their drunken selves do not impress potential employers. However, students attending their local high school have no choice about whether or not to go to school; it is law. What students do outside of school is not under the jurisdiction of their principal. Though schools may be acting in the best interest of their students by punishing them, it is not their place to do so. It is the parents’ responsibility to control the behavior of their children and to reprimand them if need be.
In an age when the Internet is a vital part of our lives, we must be careful about what we do and say online. It is increasingly difficult to know where to draw the line when it comes to the Internet activity of students. Schools need to stick to educating their students, not punishing them for what they did over the weekend.
Channel One News presented the following information on its show on January 22, 2008. I wrote the information down when I saw it; however, I was unable to find the information online. Therefore, I am unable to link the picture.
dusterbunny Said,
January 15, 2008 @ 8:49 pm
wow, interesting topic. I had never heard of the students in Minnesota, but it’s definately shocking.
I agree though, it’s really not the schools place to meddle in that way even though students should be smart enough to not post themselves doing illegal things on the internet for all the world to see.
thedumptruck Said,
January 17, 2008 @ 6:03 pm
good point, jm..
i am a little disapointed in myself, though..
after reading this post my first reaction was:
I NEED to check my facebook. (UHOH)
paul Said,
January 21, 2008 @ 8:17 am
interesting. you do make one point, however, that isn’t completely valid. students, and their parents, do have a choice of where they go to school. don’t like the school or what they’re doing? change schools. go to a private school. homeschool. there are options beyond being forced without recourse to go to said school. i would venture to guess the minnesota principals were alerted by students and it was not, as you say, the principals searching each student’s facebook or myspace pages so they could locate material to use to discipline these students. while definitely well-written (your structure and grammar is excellent!), your opinion column here definitely screams “written by a student” as your view is that students should be able to do what they want without supervision or disciplinary action (yes, that is essentially what you are saying). believe me, it doesn’t stop after high school; you will always have a boss, supervisor, or (haha) spouse. welcome to the real world!
i simply felt i should point this side of the argument out. i realize this is your opinion column and what you think and, as stated, you communicated it well and your teacher should be pleased but it isn’t cut and dry like that. i will close by saying…just because the story is told one way on the news does not mean it is actually the way it happened. but it sure made a darn good news story, didn’t it?
ithink Said,
January 21, 2008 @ 12:13 pm
As I stated in the above post, “It is the parents’ responsibility to control the behavior of their children and to reprimand them if need be.” So, I am not saying that students should do as they please without supervision or disciplinary action. So what am I saying? Parents–not school administrators–should be the ones to supervise their children’s actions outside of school. Parents–not school administrators–should be the ones to discipline their children for actions committed outside of school.
paul Said,
January 21, 2008 @ 7:32 pm
good defense. and you are right - the parents should be the ones. unless the content is harmful to a student or group of students at the school it should probably be avoided by school administration. however, if it is harmful to students at school (and i do mean while at school) then the administration has not only the authority but the responsibility to take action. (e.g. a threat, fight, etc.) not to meddle in personal lives but take action if alerted to potential problems or threats.
your blog is interesting and i check it somewhat regularly. keep up the good work.
since your position is - and rightly so - that the parents should be the ones to take action, would you say that the administration should instead notify the parents of those students when they become knowledgeable of questionable or objectionable content on students’ sites? would you say the answer is yes to certain content and no to other?
ithink Said,
January 21, 2008 @ 8:20 pm
The answer to your question–”…would you say that the administration should instead notify the parents of those students when they become knowledgeable of questionable or objectionable content on students’ site?”–is I don’t know. I’ll have to think about that and perhaps create a second post to deal with such issues. Obviously, this is not a black and white issue, as some would believe. There are many facets to this Internet age–facets that schools will continually have to address as our techno-driven society pushes on.
peelingthelayers Said,
January 23, 2008 @ 12:22 pm
I completely agree with your argument. I like how you give the example of an employer looking on a possible future employee’s facebook. In this situation, the applicant is coming to the work place. An employer would much rather higher an applicant with good morals than one who posts pictures of himself drunk on the web. Your arguments support your claim very well. Good job.
Daniel Said,
January 23, 2008 @ 12:23 pm
First of all, a pupil’s education, in this age, is overshadowed by the social scene – they’re hardly equals.
Though I do not believe that a student should be hunted by school administrators (I rather see the administrators in this part as online predators), the students, in my humble opinion, should be held accountable for what they post on the internet, an international community and should not rely upon the blockers of Facebook to separate their educational and social lives.
maddieelyse Said,
January 23, 2008 @ 12:31 pm
Nice post Puffy. You have a strong argument, and after reading this I feel like I need to break my horrible Facebook habit. How sad! However, you had many valid points and great sources. Well, I guess breaking the habit won’t be as hard as I thought.
mothballer Said,
January 23, 2008 @ 12:31 pm
Well done! Now I must insert my opinion.
Paul, you asked if school administration should contact the parent’s when they come to know of “questionable or objectionable content on students’ site,” and I believe that they should-only when they “become knowledgeable.” It is not, as previously stated, the administrator’s job to attain knowledge of the student’s lives.
One point I find interesting is this: If administrators were able/allowed to search students’ lives for blunders or purposeful illegal actions then how would they? The answer is simple. They would target only those students that they personally believe would present a problem. To search an entire student body is too time-consuming, they would only target students that slack off or usually cause problems. Would this not be prejudice or favoritism?
lhuff Said,
January 24, 2008 @ 7:18 am
ithink has hit a hot topic here, one being debated in the national scene. As several have previously commented, it is a complex issue.
Check out Wesley Fryer’s, a noted edublogger, on the issue. Some of you might like to join the discussion on Wesley’s blog. ithink, you might like to point Wesley to your on discussion by commenting on his blog post, linking to your post within your comment.
ithink believes parents should be the enforcers
lizziew Said,
January 24, 2008 @ 10:57 am
Awesome job JM! You made some very logical arguments. However, what about for those students in athletics? Many athletes sign a contract saying they will agree not to do drugs and drink alcohol. They can be subjected to random drug tests at any time. Is this any different? If pictures were publicly posted on facebook do you think they should still be punished?