Whilst I feel that the courts made the correct ruling, preventing an Indiana high school from punishing two girls for posting racy photos online, I applaud the school for trying to address the behaviour. This was clearly not a school issue and therefore not within their jurisdiction. This was something the parents of the two girls could either address or ignore. But what I like about this story is that a school cared enough about their reputation, setting an example of proper behaviour and helping those two girls reflect on their actions.
Two Indiana girls — one 16, one 15 — took racy photos of themselves at a slumber party and posted them online. When their high school found out, it suspended the girls from participating in a certain amount of their extracurricular activities. Can the school legally do that?
A federal district court in Fort Wayne, Ind., recently ruled that it cannot — because the punishment violated the girls’ First Amendment rights. The legal question of what rights students have to post provocative material on the Internet, and what rights schools have to restrict such postings, is still unsettled.
I hope schools become far more active on the subject of cyberbullying and cybersafety, two issues which are not clearly within the jurisdiction of schools. For too long schools have been only too happy to turn a blind eye to what their students do outside the school gates.
This was not the appropriate time to act but at least it wasn’t summarily ignored like so many other matters are.
Tags: Cybersafety, Education, Fort Wayne, Inadiana High School, Internet, life, Online, Parenting
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