[Kosh]

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/internet23.html

A 17-year-old student who posted on his blog site that he was being bullied and threatened by the Plainfield School District will face an expulsion hearing this week, a local attorney said.

[Grug]

Hmmm. "Slightly" retarded indeed. =/

[NGTM-1R]

I don't normally agree with the ACLU...

[Mefustae]

Now now, there's no need to make the thread-starting post so bloody provocative. There is actually fair reason behind the school district for taking this action. Frankly, if you've got a kid posting s*** on the net about the school, presumably it's within the rights of the school to tell him to shut his yap, and when the kid ignores them, he gets punished. I see no problem with that.
 
Plus, the kid sounds like a tool, so i'm hoping he gets expelled.

[Ghostavo]

Now now, there's no need to make the thread-starting post so bloody provocative. There is actually fair reason behind the school district for taking this action. Frankly, if you've got a kid posting s*** on the net about the school, presumably it's within the rights of the school to tell him to shut his yap, and when the kid ignores them, he gets punished. I see no problem with that.
 
Plus, the kid sounds like a tool, so i'm hoping he gets expelled.

 

You realise you just invalidated the whole freedom of speech thing, right?

[Mefustae]

You realise you just invalidated the whole freedom of speech thing, right?

Well, I didn't mean "within the rights" literally, but I could have worded that a little better. Still, my point remains valid, what's so bad about the school getting annoyed at some kid for posting slander on the net, in spite of asking repeatedly for him to stop?

[Ghostavo]

You realise you just invalidated the whole freedom of speech thing, right?

Well, I didn't mean "within the rights" literally, but I could have worded that a little better. Still, my point remains valid, what's so bad about the school getting annoyed at some kid for posting slander on the net, in spite of asking repeatedly for him to stop?

Where did you see it was slander? He posted he was threatened and bullied.

[Mefustae]

On May 1, the student posted a letter to Plainfield School District on www.xanga.com , telling off the district, using vulgar words and saying he could put whatever he wanted on his site.

Since we don't know what he wrote on his website that warranted the school's attention, we can't really judge how valid his reasons are for posting a public backlash at the request, but as you can see, his posted letter was obviously somewhat derogatory in nature.

He then went on to post his annoyance at being "bullied and threatened", which I should point out we've not seen or know whether it was indeed bullying or threatening at all. Moreover, we don't know what on the kid's website actually warranted the school's attention, so the district may have been completely justified in asking him to take it down, and punishing him when he not only refused to comply, but insulted the school in a decidedly public manner.

[Flaser]

That facility is another Columbine in the making.
No the kid won't go berserk - the rest of them will when forced to put up with this **** for years to come.

[Ghostavo]

On May 1, the student posted a letter to Plainfield School District on www.xanga.com , telling off the district, using vulgar words and saying he could put whatever he wanted on his site.

Since we don't know what he wrote on his website that warranted the school's attention, we can't really judge how valid his reasons are for posting a public backlash at the request, but as you can see, his posted letter was obviously somewhat derogatory in nature.

He then went on to post his annoyance at being "bullied and threatened", which I should point out we've not seen or know whether it was indeed bullying or threatening at all. Moreover, we don't know what on the kid's website actually warranted the school's attention, so the district may have been completely justified in asking him to take it down, and punishing him when he not only refused to comply, but insulted the school in a decidedly public manner.

Buh?

[Colonol Dekker]

From what i see, He posted on the net, Whether or not the site was blocked, its probably the schools policy that their net access shouldnt be used for personal stuff like blogs or heaven forbid forums. They found out he used it, told him off i imagine, said dont do it again- he did it again. (whether or not it was at school i can tdiscern from the article) and cos he disobeyed them he was expelled, It seems like its not the manner of disobedience, just the act of disregard for teachers "authority" which in turn ended up with a suspension. in turn he blew it out of the water by invoking the "Freedom of speech arguement". Which to be frank if it was the case, back (many) years ago when i was a schoolboy, i would have spent all my lesson time "chattin wid me crew" Or chattin up Miss Thornton my lovely 24 year old student science teacher.

[Mefustae]

Buh?

Could you give me a little more than just 'Buh'? Make a counter-point, prove me wrong, just gimme a little more, man!

[Fineus]

From what i see...

If all that is true then I'm inclined to agree. I can appreciate that a student should be free to express their views but given he was apparently breaking school rules to purposefully do these things... it becomes less about his freedom of speach and more about him using that to be a pain in the ass to all concerned. The end of line should therefore be "if you can't follow these simple and reasonable in-school rules then you're no longer welcome here". Failure to enforce the rules could have a much worse consequence for the entire school as other students would think they could do what they liked with inpunity.

[Ghostavo]

Buh?

Could you give me a little more than just 'Buh'? Make a counter-point, prove me wrong, just gimme a little more, man!

Sorry.

Anyway, I still don't see where he insulted the school. They say he used vulgar words so it can mean he said stuff like Samuel Jackson.

From what i see...

If all that is true then I'm inclined to agree. I can appreciate that a student should be free to express their views but given he was apparently breaking school rules to purposefully do these things... it becomes less about his freedom of speach and more about him using that to be a pain in the ass to all concerned. The end of line should therefore be "if you can't follow these simple and reasonable in-school rules then you're no longer welcome here". Failure to enforce the rules could have a much worse consequence for the entire school as other students would think they could do what they liked with inpunity.

But the website is not under the schools jurisdiction nor is the school supposed to be the thought police. There is no school rule (unless the US has very different schools  ) that say "You may not post offensive sentences in a website we do not allow students to go to inside the school.".

[Mefustae]

But we don't know it if was just offensive sentences, it may have been something considerably more offensive or inappropriate, and the article-writer simply omitted that detail because 'Schoolchild Opression' makes better news than 'Schoolchild gets what he deserves'.

[Fineus]

I got the impression that he was posting this stuff from within the school?

[Ghostavo]

But we don't know it if was just offensive sentences, it may have been something considerably more offensive or inappropriate, and the article-writer simply omitted that detail because 'Schoolchild Opression' makes better news than 'Schoolchild gets what he deserves'.

Perhaps and that was partially the point of my "Buh?" reply. You first said you don't know what was posted and then assumed the worse about him just as I assumed the better about him. Of course this could be resolved by searching for the letter

Kalfireth, the link says that most schools block those websites, so I assume he posted the content at home.

[Mefustae]

Perhaps and that was partially the point of my "Buh?" reply. You first said you don't know what was posted and then assumed the worse about him just as I assumed the better about him. Of course this could be resolved by searching for the letter

But it would be safer to assume the worst, because the last time I checked, School Districts weren't Evil conglomerations of supervillians that seek to opress the weak and turn the US into an Authoritarian Regime. Sarcasm aside, the fact that the school took action points to the student doing something considerably bad, and his actions after being told to take whatever it was down - posting slanderous sentiments on a blog-site - only reinforces my position.

[Colonol Dekker]

I got the impression that he was posting this stuff from within the school?

Same here.  

Posted by: Ghostavo

But the website is not under the schools jurisdiction nor is the school supposed to be the thought police. There is no school rule (unless the US has very different schools   ) that say "You may not post offensive sentences in a website we do not allow students to go to inside the school.".

I understand that, but i raise a point here, what sort of school is it? what kind of area, and what kind of person is this student exactly, If he's actually a well behaved pupil who made a mistake then fair enough, but he may well be the loud obnoxious belligerent arsemonkey every single class in the world has. And we all know how much mouth those types can dish out to teachers. 
Most schools dont let kids use net access unless its for "legitimate" reasons, ie researching history, media studies etc, Blogs are completely unasssociate from any subject (except IT but even then its a stretch)

[Ghostavo]

Perhaps and that was partially the point of my "Buh?" reply. You first said you don't know what was posted and then assumed the worse about him just as I assumed the better about him. Of course this could be resolved by searching for the letter

But it would be safer to assume the worst, because the last time I checked, School Districts weren't Evil conglomerations of supervillians that seek to opress the weak and turn the US into an Authoritarian Regime. Sarcasm aside, the fact that the school took action points to the student doing something considerably bad, and his actions after being told to take whatever it was down - posting slanderous sentiments on a blog-site - only reinforces my position.

But again, you don't know if it was slander. Here you are assuming he is guilty until proven innocent.

Curiously, how did the school find out about his letter?

Colonol Dekker, it is the schools responsibility/right to do whatever they can on their grounds, but on the internet it's a whole different story.