The benefits of Facebook are obvious and invaluable. However, it is clear that like every other innovation, the bad comes with the good. Facebook connects you to places and people all over the world, it allows you to promote yourself, your business and interact with more people than you otherwise would. But it also has the potential of getting you in trouble:
Recently there was the case of Natalie Munroe who became a hero in some quarters for blunt comments she made of her students on her Facebook page.
Now we have a very disappointing case that once again acts as a cautionary tale of Facebook misuse:
A 13-year old Georgia girl is facing expulsion and relocation to an “alternative school” after she called one of her teachers a pedophile on Facebook. The girl, Alejandra Sosa, and two of her classmates who commented on the post must now go before a disciplinary tribunal for what Chapel Hill Middle School calls a “level one” offense: the worst category of transgression in the student handbook. Sosa posted the message because she was angry with her teacher, but said it was intended as a joke. She claims that she now regrets posting it, and understands that what she did was wrong.
The parents of the three students, though upset with their kids’ behavior, think the school and its principal, Jolene Morris, have gone too far. Sosa claims that Morris took her to the school’s library after catching wind of the post. She claims the principal then demanded she log into her Facebook account; she then took the keyboard and mouse from the student to read through her Wall posts, before telling Sosa to delete the messages. The father of William Lambert, one of the other students implicated in the incident, says that Morris also violated his son’s privacy by demanding that Sosa log into her Facebook account; Lambert had called the teacher a rapist in a comment on Sosa’s original post.
The parents all believe that sending the children to a school for students with behavioral problems will ultimately derail their education. Sosa is an honor student, and Taylor’s mother worries that putting the children in that environment is tantamount to telling them to “[be] in a gang and do drugs.” The parents have banded together to obtain the services of a lawyer. If the tribunal decides on expulsion and alternative schools, the case could wind up in the courts.
Gerry Weber, an adjunct professor of civil rights at Georgia State University, told the Atlanta Journal Constitution that while online comments are subject to libel laws, they’re also protected under the First Amendment. The schools do not have the jurisdiction to punish students for “off-campus speech,” he said, unless the comments can be proven to have caused an on-campus “disruption.” The principal’s decision to access Sosa’s Facebook account could also play to the students’ favor in court proceedings, as it may be seen as a violation of the child’s privacy.
I know there aren’t many that will agree with me, but falsely accusing a teacher of being a pedophile in a public forum is worthy of expulsion. I know she is a child and didn’t properly think through her actions, but there is no worse label to give a teacher than that one. Her parents should stop defending her and let her cop her punishment. It is about time that kids take responsibility for their actions. If they are old enough to have a Facebook page, then they are old enough to accept accountability for its misuse. Her parents need to tell her that while the penalty may seem harsh, it is a fair one. One that will hopefully get her to think before she slanders another person.
And perhaps, there is a lesson there for all of us with our Facebook pages. Facebook is there to connect us with others not to divide us.
Tags: Cyber Bullying, Education, facebook, Internet, life, Natalie Munroe, News, Parenting, School, social media
Topical Teaching 
March 9, 2011 at 2:52 am |
“The benefits of Facebook are obvious and invaluable”???? That is a pretty strange thing to start with. I’ve yet to see any benefit (to me) of Facebook.
False accusations in public are indeed serious, but so are deliberate invasions of student privacy. Both sides here are in the wrong.
March 9, 2011 at 8:19 am |
I do agree with you, any person who a Facebook account should be responsible for his or her own actions there. If the person was a minor and did something similar to this, then it’s the parent’s faults. What type of parents are they? They must be embarrassed that they decided to put the faults on the teachers. Wake up parents! You send your kids to school to learn the given curriculum from the teachers only. When you become a parent, it’s your responsibility to teach your own kids proper values, what’s wrong and right. What kind of world do we live in these days? Seriously! This is the problem we have today. Parents blame the school when they can’t handle their kids behaviors. Such pathetic thinking.
March 9, 2011 at 1:22 pm |
This is such an interesting day. I’ve been surrounded by talk of discipline. I think the principal invaded the privacy of the student by making her log into her account. I think the student was wrong for posting a comment like that. However, as a first offense for an honors student, it does not warrant being sent to a school for kids with behavioral problems. I’m starting to feel that discipline is becoming more about punishment than about learning why what you did was wrong. One of the problems is that technology is advancing faster than parents and schools can keep up with it. I think it is wrong to put all the blame on the parent. Sometimes kids do stupid things despite having the best upbringing. They’re human. They fail. They should be given the opportunity to make amends and learn from their mistakes rather than being punished so harshly it may negatively affect the rest of their lives. Don’t get me wrong–I feel for the teacher who was unjustly accused. That could have negatively affected the rest of his life, too. But two wrongs don’t make a right, and I feel the punishment is much too harsh. For the first offense, perhaps start with a suspension with a warning that a second offense will lead to expulsion and transfer. Have the student publicly apologize to the teacher. That sounds fair to me.
March 9, 2011 at 8:11 pm |
Thanks for all the brilliant comments. I would like to add a few points:
– On reflection perhaps expulsion was a bit tough, but a strong penalty still suffice.
– Teachers should certainly not invade students privacy, that is true.
– It’s not my business to tell the parents how they should handle the situation, but from my perspective it would have been appropriate for them to have a more balanced approach. There is no worse label a teacher can have.
Once again I appreciate the comments. It’s great to see a range of views on this and other matters.
April 10, 2012 at 7:58 pm |
Hope this works, my second attempt to post a comment! Very interesting, I came across in the course of looking for advice on Facebook and whether to set up an account after deleting my original one two years ago. I am always astonished that so many children under 16 are members of sites such as FB and feel there should be an age limit. Surely they should be encouraged to do all their social networking face to face at that age?! I appreciate the introduction of the internet means an end to the arguments over phone bills that were often part of growing up (!) but it also means that adults cannot overhear the kind of comments being made at their end. I doubt if references to such serious offences as rape or attacks on children would have gone without comment if an adult had heard them mentioned during a call. I can understand the principal’s actions, even if they were spontaneous and triggered by anger. The parents should have done that rather than effectively backing up what their children had said. So my second thought is that if children that age are online everything they do should be monitored by their carers. As for the comments that these children made, well, that just goes to show that at that age they are still learning about issues like sex and violence. Adults are careless about what is said in front of them and don’t seem to realise just how much they pick up. Sensitivity to the feelings of others is something they are still working on and, let’s be honest, some never master it! I feel the children involved got what they deserved and, by extension, their parents. I have no doubt that their peers are now more carefully monitored than they were before.
April 10, 2012 at 9:20 pm |
Thank you for perservering with the comment. You make some wonderful points. I only wish that parents read your comment and use it to tighten up their awareness of what their children do online.