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?
I agree. It just needs to be appropriate and a valid complaint. IF it is such an issue at Steevo's school. They need to set up a dang GetSatisfaction site.
Your freedom of speech is limited in school. Schools have all sorts of authority to limit your speech. This is completely constitutional (whether or not you like it is a different issue).
It looks like lawsuit bait to me, their legal department must be on vacation. This policy is buisiness oriented obviously though enforcement will be difficult at best, nearly impossible to prove that an individual posted the comments and even a half competant lawyer could win a lawsuit against them if they actually attempted to enforce this policy, though as this is a buisiness oriented policy the issue would be settled out of court. Even if the policy is constitutional which would be difficult to argue, again any competant lawyer could win a case against them, most juries would dislike the policy and the negative press against the school would be buisiness suicide. Still, the mere fact a school believes it has the right to even put such a policy on paper, even one as unlikely to be enforced as this one, is proof that the power of "educational" facilities needs to be reigned in. The job of the schools is to educate students on facts and theories and that is all.
So what exactly are the consequences for "marring their learning environment"?
Anything from detentions to saturday schools to suspensions. They haven't enacted this policy, but are thinking about it because there were some students spreading embarrassing rumors about a few teachers.
Keep in mind that this is a private school. I do believe private schools are allowed to enact different policies that state run schools cannot. Correct me if I am wrong on that...
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.
Honestly, what the older members of society and the youngin's think of slander and defamation are two totally different wavelengths. Most of the time, this talk is just gossiping and whining.
Your freedom of speech is limited in school. Schools have all sorts of authority to limit your speech. This is completely constitutional (whether or not you like it is a different issue).
That's the key thing here. IN SCHOOL. Outside school hours, faculty and administration members are just mere citizens. They can evoke any kind of rules on their property, as they own it and such, but when school hours end, students can talk all they want within the law. When kids say, "OMG Mr. Smith is a big HOMO! I saw him looking at Michael's butt at recess", that is more gossip than anything. If they go into detail and make a big deal out of it in order to cause harm, then that is slander. Or libel. You're typing something out, right? Okay, it's libel.
Sadly, I also know a girl who has that exact personality of the gossiping comment Ash posted >_>
Worry more about the bullying that is pushing these kids to commit suicide.
It would be great if schools could focus on weeding out the trouble makers from the students who simply want to move on with their lives. I believe students who cause a lot of trouble, such as those who traffic drugs and bully, should be put on a leash.
The problem is, schools are becoming too strict. It's hard to treat individual problem students like trouble makers, so the school enforces a rule everyone must follow, which is treating everyone as if they were trouble makers. In the end, you get less bullying and more unhappiness all around from everyone.
Don't make me go into a rant about how absolutely disgusting my highschool was. Everyone thought I was crazy for caring so much, and I had nothing but honest proposals.
That's fine, but the policy is for the kids.
A school who takes legal action against a kid for criticizing them are no more than bullies themselves.
The job of the schools is to educate students on facts and theories and that is all.
AMEN!
A school should not be allowed to take action against a student for something they do outside of school with few exceptions.
Do you know what schools should start doing? They should let the students speak their minds, then listen to what they say! Allowing the school to take a totalitarian approach will only cause more problems. The school will have a say in what students can and can't do outside of school outside of school hours and property. The school will also have more responsibility in making sure students behave, which means they will push even more strict rules on students to make sure they don't get out of hand. Basically, this pushes the school into treating each and every student like trouble makers before they do anything wrong.
Lastly, a school should not be able to force criticisms from being removed from the internet, newspaper, or any other media source. This infringes on constitutional rights. A school that can not be questioned can avoid taking responsibility. If a school has a bullying problem, they can take down any criticism stating this problem, allowing them to ignore fixing such issues. In the mean time, you have the what-if people coming up with possible unlikely scenarios that might possibly happen someday, so they make rules so those likely-not-going-to-happen are completely prevented (or are they?).
[quote=First Amendment U.S. Constitution]Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.[/quote] In a nutshell; freedom of speech.
A school who takes legal action against a kid for criticizing them are no more than bullies themselves.
They aren't. They get suspended or detention. I believe that's what Steevo wrote. However, slander and defamation can get you into legal trouble and that is not the school's doing.
But I am still on the side that these kids have no business posting nonsense on facebook about teachers. It does not need to be done on a public forum. This is a two-way street, though. Let me give you an example of a teacher that made a horrible comment on Facebook just last week:Here
My point is that if a student needs to complain about a teacher, then take it someone in person. It is silly to post stuff on public forums about other people in such a hateful manner. And I do not feel that most kids know how to lodge a legitimate complaint. I'm willing to bet 9 times out of 10 it is something that is trivial anyway.
I don't see how the constitution is even relevant. It's a private school, and unless I'm wrong private schools are not run by the government. No one is forcing the parents to send their kids to a private school. If the parents/guardians do not like the school rules then they can just stop sending their kids to that school and send them to a public school instead. If it was a public school I would be against that rule. But it's a private school and if they want to try to enforce that rule I say let them go for it. It's not harming anyone. If a real issue actually did come up then the kid should tell his parents and have the parents bring the issue to the school. Posting on Facebook is NOT how problems are cleared up.
This is a form of censorship, but they're a private school and can do whatever they want - basically, you're agreeing to go there, so if they want to get rid of you, they can for whatever reason. Is it stupid? Yeah, but not unconstitutional - it doesn't deal with government.
