So my school (I go to a private school) is thinking about enacting a policy that can get your in trouble if your mar the reputation of the school by posting criticisms against teachers and/or the school online (facebook, twitter, blogs, etc...). Their argument is that by making fun of the school or posting negative comments about teachers online, it can make the school look bad in the eyes of incoming freshmen or transfer students. They also argue that it can cause other students to become disrespectful and "cause harm to the learning environment".
What are your opinions on this matter? Do you think that other schools should enact similar policies? Or do you think that issues outside of schools should be left alone?
The policy sounds ridiculous. If someone has something negative to say, then there might be good reason for saying it. If there is a real issue it makes it all easier to sweep it under the rug and ignore it.
The only thing that I can add to Mage's comment is that if you cannot be able to speak out against your school on any terms, then it is clearly unconstitutional. You criticize to show people, teachers and administration alike, what their weaknesses are. It is what makes them better at doing their jobs, by getting negative feedback from the students. If the comment is utterly disrespectful, that's another thing--that's being slanderous.
I want to know how they could possibly enforce this. Maybe they'd know who posted which comment on one of those social-networking sites, because people are stupid enough to post everything under their real full name; however, on a site such as this one, where people use usernames that make them somewhat anonymous, even if a school director was in disguise and they thought knew exactly who posted certain negative comments, there would be no way they'd be able to prove it.
Yeh this happened at my old school, there was a facebook group made about this teacher cos he's a bellend and everyone who joined it got first questioned on who made it, and then detentions for a week, safe to say nobody went and parents complained.
I think they need to worry less what the kids are saying about the teachers and the school. Worry more about the bullying that is pushing these kids to commit suicide.
Now that I am sitting here thinking about it. The school might actually have a leg to stand on. There are cases that online content could be considered slander and defamation. This, in turn, could produce financial loss or even unemployment. If that is the case, the school teacher that was being talked about could in some round-about way sue the school district and/or the student's family and probably win.
I guess that's fair enough in dealing with people who only seek to slander and defame the school - however, if there are genuine problems, then it's best that they be spoken about openly - and not swept under the rug by the school.
Certainly that is the best method - however, if the school refuses to act against issues that parents feel strongly about then surely it's acceptable to spread the word of your personal experience and perhaps seek others with the same problems?
That's certainly a fair point. Still, personal opinion is personal opinion - as long as it's represented as such then I don't think we should impede people's right to express it.
