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IL School District to Monitor Student Blogs
tinkertim writes "According to a Yahoo article, a school district in Libertyville, IL will be holding students accountable for illegal actions discussed in their MySpace blogs even if such actions in no way involved the school or another student. A spokesperson for the school district was quoted as saying: 'The concept that searching a blog site is an invasion of privacy is almost an oxymoron,' he said. 'It is called the World Wide Web.' Supposedly, no direct monitoring or snooping will be done unless the school receives a report from a concerned parent, community member or other student."
The ambiguity of the criteria doesn't help either: 'Illegal' is one thing, but 'inappropriate' is another one they use (though not mentioned in the summary) and more or less gives them a license to discipline (oh, but only after some undisclosable anonymous source expresses 'concern', of course). I'm willing to bet that illegal means mostly slander against school employees, and inappropriate is 'anything else we don't like and can use as dirt against a kid we want to get rid of'.
Given that most of the time, it's parental apathy being compensated for by the authorities, it's very telling that in this case parents are demanding to be given back their control.Libertyville? Yeah- right.
If we're going to become a 1984 style police state it makes sence to start with the young people.
You are so boring that when I see you my feet go to sleep.
...of law enforcement. Shall we have our police officers teaching and managing our schools now? I can't even fathom why a school would want to take on this responsibility. I bet that if this keeps up, a few years down the road parents are going to be yelling at the schools for not catching Jonny's 'illegal' blog. What a mess. Now only if the parents would make the same committment!
You go to school, you know people.
If you reference those people in your blog, we can find you
You go to school, you do extra-curricular activities
If you reference those activities in your blog, we can find you
You go to school, you have classes
If you mention those classes, we can find you
You go to school, you dislike a teacher
If you mention that teacher, we can find you
Basically, We can find you.
Can't we all just get along
...they have increased the likelihood that people will try to hold them responsible, and more likely that they will be succesful in doing so. Stupid move. Maybe they should spend more effort dealing with the things they are already, by law, clearly responsible for, and tell people that won't to report apparently illegal things that have nothing to do with the school that they infer from someone's blog postings to call the appropriate law enforcement agency.
Because school districts aren't equipped or funded to act as general law enforcement agencies, and have more than enough demands on their resources doing what they are supposed to do, without their staff trying to live out their "Internet cop" fantasies.
let's say I have a blog, and claim I stole a diamond ring from my neighbor in my blog.
what exactly is the school going to do, that they are going to hold me accountable for what I write in my blog..
arrest me? press charges as an educatorial influence?
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
Should be no end of fun for the kids, and I rather suspect that the first several lawyers' fees will end up paid by the district too.
Lacking <sarcasm> tags,
People shouldn't have to conceal their personal information online when the searcher has no right to use it . It'd be bad enough if a school punished students for ranting about school online, but the fact that they are punishing students for anything non-school related is downright draconian and offensive. They have no right to do that.
This is yet another step towards government-as-parent. Since when is it the school's job (as a government funded organization) to police students' activities when they are not on school property, and are not engaged in activities related to the school? Further, just because someone writes something in a blog does not mean it is true. Keywords: "Waste of resources".
This is a perversion of what schools should actually be focusing on. Why not focus on teaching students how to perform basic life skills, like manage credit, get a bank account, balance a checkbook, and spot shady deals when trying to buy a car? At least that would fall under "education", not "parenting" (although parents should be teaching their children all that as well).
What if someone didn't like a particular student, created a blog claiming to be them, and posted illegal or inappropriate material? The same thing goes for employers checking out potential employees. There's no way to verify people are who they say they are on these sites.
Let the public schools do what they please. If they do it well, they'll thrive. If they do it poorly, charter schools will eat them alive. Meanwhile, whatever happened to free speech, at ay cost?
"The board of Community High School District 128 voted unanimously on Monday to require that all students participating in extracurricular activities sign a pledge agreeing that evidence of "illegal or inappropriate" behavior posted on the Internet could be grounds for disciplinary action."
Clearly this school is just preparing its students for the America of tomorrow.
Last time I checked, we have agencies for handling illegal activities. I believe they are called "police".....
Since when does a school have the time or resources to monitor this type of thing? Sure, sure, if they get notified and see it on the web page, report it to be the police. But last time I checked every person in this country is allowed "Due Process" before being sentenced for any type of crime, and last time I checked it is NOT the schools that are allowed to levy a sentence prior to a court of law.
Overstepping their bounds? WAY overstepping their bounds my friends.
Heck yeah, If I went to one of those schools I would so make fake MySpace accounts of the all of kids I hate and post all sorts of illegal stuff on it. Finally it pays off to be a nerd :)
I'd probably even do it on the school network if I could so they could not track the IP address (if MySpace would even let them have it). Internet anonymity for teh win!!111
023AD01("Child", "Evil");
... I smell a lawsuit! ... Yeah, a big one - at least six figures ... ;)
Shh.
Well since I hate my classmates, I think I will scan their yearbook picture, create an account as them, then ramble on about mercy killings etc... ... Wonder what will happen when this occurs.
Infiltrated dot Net
While this action quite reasonably offends our sense of liberty and free speech, it is certainly not unprecedented. The fact that students are forced to sign this agreement in order to participate in extracurricular activities is what makes this likely to stand up to scrutiny unless a serious public outcry arises. A choice is given, and as long as students are willing to give up the privilege of participating in extracurriculars (which are not guaranteed/forced on them, unlike education), they are free not to be bound by this agreement.
Schools have been using this gimmick to coerce students into submitting to drug tests for many years now, and as far as I know, it has not been ruled unfair. Not that I support either of these things, as the ultimate effect is to force any student that wants to go to college to either sign the agreement or make up a lot of bogus extracurriculars, but I'm not sure that there's any solid legal argument against it, and there may even be some precedent in its favor.
No, I think they will just start posting under each others' names.
It is now apparent what the step before "Profit!!" is: snitch.
the layman's guide to computer science
Here's a wild guess:
Kick you off the teams (and other extra activities that look good on college admission forms). Kick you out of AP classes. Suspend or expell you. Put black marks in your record (and otherwise interfere with earning decent grades) that will blight your carreer and reduce your earning and marriage prospects for the rest of your life.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
http://www.district128.org/index.php?module=pagema ster&PAGE_user_op=view_page&PAGE_id=122
Safe practices for teens who use MySpace or other blog sites:
#1 Disguise yourself! When you register for a MySpace account and fill out the profile, you can leave nearly all the fields blank and even use a bogus email address. Never include your real name anywhere on the site and leave out addresses, towns, school name, sports teams, cell phone numbers and any other contact information about you or your friends. And most importantly, make sure that your friends who may link to your site do the same.
Under your logic, the officials at Columbine High School shouldn't have done anything unless the kids were drawing up the plans to stage a full-scale assault while they were in art class.
What a child does outside of class that impacts the campus should rightfully be a concern of the district, even if its not under their direct "authority."
If a kid on myspace -- aka the backwater of the web where HTML from 1995 is still popular -- is talking about plans to take out a group of students, or running drugs onto campus to sell during lunch, then I think the district not only has a duty, but an obligation, to try and make sure neither happens.
If they didn't, and tragedy struck we'd all be in here tsk, tsking about the obvious warning signs that were missed.
No, "someone" doesn't. And generally when "someone" with no claim to a kid decides to start monitoring them, it's called STALKING.
Considering that probaly almost half the thirteen year old Tammies on 13-yo IRC chat channels are really Big-assed-Burt, truck driver from IL, how long before BaB starts making up ficticious blogs that get real Tammies into trouble.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
WHOOSH!!!!
Did you hear that? That was the sound of the point going over your head. It's not a privacy issue. The problem is that the school is punishing kids for things that they say WHEN THEY'RE NOT ON SCHOOL GROUNDS!!! As soon as that kid steps off of their property, it's none of their damned business what the kids say. And I don't give a crap whether it's just talking about extra-curricular activities or not. They are using this to coerce kids into keeping their mouths shut. Kids are learning about blackmail at an early age. What would you think if your work made you sign a pledge stating that they will watch out for anything you post online and if they don't like it, you will lose your bonus and/or raise for the year along with some of your benefits?
And before anyone else starts rambling on about kids who post death threats, etc. I believe those and other truly harmful language are already illegal, requiring no action whatsoever on the part of the school.
If you mod me down, I shall become less powerful than you could possibly imagine.
And what about when they suspend a student because the student posted to a web site that they went a party and got drunk on the weekend.
There's no oxymoron, but it's clear the spokesperson is a moron.
Or, it could be called "a day on the job at Dept of Homeland Security".
I feel like death on a soda cracker.
And who gets to decide what's offensive? They do. And if it doesn' tinvolve school, how the hell is it any of their business if a kid says something offensive anyway? You're an absolute fool to think it would only be used against kids who did something illegal.
I dream of a better world... one in which chickens can cross roads without their motives being questioned.
Your logic is flawed. So, if I was still in high school, but I made a Duke Nukem 3d map of my school, the school should be concerned? Well guess what, I in fact made a Duke Nukem 3d map of a layout similar to my school, you know why? Because the building layout made a good map. So not only, under your logic, would I get in trouble, probably get suspended or expelled, I would be labeled as a depressed potential murderer and have a police record. I like that. Even though I had 0 intention of actually acting it out, my life would be ruined, because of your logic. Not only am I not depressive, I have 0 intention on ever murdering anyone, or have I ever. Please, think before typing.
Has a different ring, don't you think?
So yes, you video-taping yourself lighting cats on fire and cutting yourself might get you in trouble now with your school.
If it is illegal, then it is a matter for the police. If it is offensive, it's no one's damn business. This isn't a matter for the school, dumbass. But, what do I care? I would say that I hate your freedom, but it doesn't look like you really have much for me to hate anymore.
I feel like death on a soda cracker.
Fav. quote: "It is called the World Wide Web."
... well ... educating. I guess we're just special that way.
I'm not sure what goes on down south of the border, but up here in the great white north, we have police for dealing with criminal activites. We try to keep people working in the educational system busy
With the education system as it is now, how did anyone even think of something this inane? We don't have enough teachers to teach, yet alone enough teachers to sift through kids' blogs looking to see if they did something illegal or "inappropriate."
Don't trust a bull's horn, a doberman's tooth, a runaway horse or me.
There is an easy solution to this if the students really find this offensive.
Sign up for a myspace account if you don't have one. Exchange them among students. Complain about everyone elses account. Everyone ask every day if they have investigated all complaints. I think the biggest offense here from a liability standpoint would likely be the targeting of some students over others.
I'd also suggest fun with content. It'd be fun to post extensive content on which teachers were less than competent. Nothing libelous or overly inflamatory but it'd be nice to have a post for everytime a teacher was late to class or every time an administrator picked their nose. Just stick to the facts kids. Rat out every shortcoming of the institution and force them to read it all day in and day out. I ran pretty low on the Radar in highschool but I can still think of pleny of shortcommings that they would probably not like to hear about themselves.
I do believe that Libertyville is a farily large school so it should quickly turn into a giant morass.
Have fun people.
I'm not feeling witty so bite me
Correction: kids shouldn't be so stupid as to post something on the PUBLIC internet that they wouldn't want their teachers/parents reading. When a kid gets in trouble for writing that he hates his math teacher and wants to kill him because he got an F on a test, that kid shouldn't bitch about civil liberties when he gets called to the principal's office the next day. Freedom of speech is great and all but talking about doing something illegal on MySpace is starting to become as stupid as saying "bomb" in an airport (I realize that's a bit of an exaggeration, before you flame me for it).
Dealing with issues that don't concern the school are shady, I definitely agree there. However I can't imagine there's anything stopping the school official from notifiying the police if he/she sees something of real concern.
What it boils down to is that you should know the risks associated when you post information in a public forum. If you wouldn't yell it in the streets, don't blog it.
What is this educational fixation with getting students to sign shit? "Hey Timmy, we are going to extort a signature out of you. Sign here on this document you've had no input to. No? Well then can you explain to the class why you object? Speak up Timmy, nice clear voice. Well, I expect you didn't really want to play on the football team anyway." Isn't the point that the student should voluntarily buy in to the idea? Teachers, being the little Hitler's that they are, don't seem to notice the absurdity: there is a rule requiring voluntary agreement. If you don't sign, no extracurricular activities.
If a kid on myspace -- aka the backwater of the web where HTML from 1995 is still popular -- is talking about plans to take out a group of students, or running drugs onto campus to sell during lunch, then I think the district not only has a duty, but an obligation, to try and make sure neither happens.
The district has an obligation to inform the police. Anything less than this is complicity, and anything more is taking the law into their own hands.
May the Maths Be with you!
Why is this marked as a troll?
Maybe a school administrator had mod points?
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
I went to this very high school and in my senior year they instituted a policy whereby any athlete involved in any way with the police(even actions that involved free speech) could be removed from their team and banned from all sports activities. This is just a logical progression for such a school and the fact the information isn't confirmed or reliable won't stop them from acting on it.
I'm glad I'm out of that community and it reinforces my weariness of any suburb, anywhere. I feel sorry for the students that have to live in that environment because I'm sure it justs gets worse with each passing year.
The critical issue here is that a private school is not a government agency and as such on on one hand has the right of association and on the other doesn't have the restraints placed on the government by the constitution.
The writeup is wrong. According to TFA, it's illegal or 'inappropriate' behavoir that will be punished. And that leaves a nice huge grey area. Although even if it was strictly illegal activity...would that mean that the school would only be able to punish students after they had been convicted? Because there is that pesky innocent until proven guilty thing to worry about. This is just a very bad idea from the start, and will probably end in the school system losing some lawsuits.
If the student posts that he intends to kill his (teacher|principal|schoolmate), whether on the Net or anywhere else, he has made a death threat. Not only may he be discipined by the school, but he is also subject to arrest and prosecution.
On the other hand, what if he posts a profanity-laden rant about how unfair the grading system is? Not polite, perhaps, but certainly not illegal-and if done off of school hours, EVEN if he posts it on a public website (or shouts it in a public square), he should not be subject to school discipline. Yet, the school could easily state that what he said was "inappropriate", even though it was perfectly legal.
On the school district's part, it is breathtakingly arrogant-especially for a superintendent to claim that she is not violating the students' rights by "searching" their blogs. Of course she's not, it's up there for anyone in the world to read. However, the students' rights ARE being violated if she is suppressing otherwise legal speech in those blogs. Hell of a way to duck the issue.
I fully agree that should you be stupid enough to post information about doing something -illegal- in a public place, you deserve what you get. The big concern here is the ever-slippery "inappropriate". Teenagers naturally experiment and push the boundaries. This is a natural and healthy part of adolescence, and so long as the kid is not -crossing- those boundaries (i.e. breaking the law), it is not the school's place to intervene after the kid goes home.
To fight the war on terror, stop being afraid.
And who gets to decide what's offensive?
Society does. That's how the world works. The school only gets involved if there is a complaint (and I would imagine a number of complaints or a significant complaint). Hence, *society* external to the school decides on what is offensive. The school mediates. Again, I'm assuming there are rational people in charge at the school and care not about "Jimmy said the F-word on myspace!", but more serious issues like physical threats or mental abuse.
What is really happening is the school is turning into a "social services" type agency here. Like it or not, these kids are minors, and will be treated like minors. They should be following a path better than just what is legal. Many need direction and guidance. Who is to say that the school has this right? Well, society, again. Just like society dictates the laws (let's not get too picky there) and came up with the social services body.
Remember that inaction can be worse than action.
Indeed... If I was in the school district, I would start a blog, just so I could tell the story of how I used my army of robots to nuke New Tokyo, or something. Then, I would post that I shot Kennedy using my time machine. Then, I would post that I had a glass of wine. I'd love to see them try to engage in any serious disciplinary action based on a single unverified piece of heresay without any corroborating evidence. Certainly, the student has no expectation of privacy. The school has the authority to read any blog they want. But, if they want to actually do anything as a result, they deserve to have their asses handed to them.
Here's a news flash:
They've been doing this at my old school district for well over a year now. (South-central PA)
My sister has had friends busted for having Xanga's, Myspace's, etc which detailed either insults directed at teachers, various parties involving drinking, or direct threats to other students (the excuse they use for this in the first place). Some have even had explusion hearings based upon what was stated on their Xanga's (although in one case... it was just the straw that broke the camel's back).
While there are ways to protect your privacy in these communities, many people don't do it for the simple fact that they INTEDED to be found by their friends. The flaw in the social system is that nobody assumes that their parents would ever check these systems.
The long and short of it is: If you'd get in trouble (either parentally, scholastically, or legally) for saying it to someone's face, either use a proper layer of privacy, or DON'T FREAKING WRITE IT!
I want to surrender all responsibility, rights, thought and action to the school district. Please run my life for me.
I am cool with the school busting kids for talking about illegal activities. Are you really that stupid. Way to talk about breaking the law in public. I could care less if the school monitors their blogs. The line they shouldn't cross was posted earlier about the teen being expelled for posting about the school harassing him when he was posting at his own home (NOT THE SCHOOL!). The second ironic thing about this pair of stories though is that this town is Libertyville. I am no expert but it seems to me that me saying "I wish they would go #$@@ their self" or "I think he is a @$#*$" would be considered statement of personal belief or opinion - protected by free speach and as long as it wasn't done from school should be fine. It's expressing the statement "I am going to kill bob" that gets you in trouble. But I could be wrong.
Society does. That's how the world works. The school only gets involved if there is a complaint (and I would imagine a number of complaints or a significant complaint). Hence, *society* external to the school decides on what is offensive. The school mediates.
So it's perfectly fine to interfere with and mess up a student's education, if someone irrelevant to both the school and the student decides it's "offensive", and makes a complaint?
but more serious issues like physical threats or mental abuse.
Well that still comes under "illegal", and should be handled appropriately. The question here is those things which are legal, but fall under "inappropriate". Can you give me some valid examples?
Like it or not, these kids are minors, and will be treated like minors.
But this logic only makes sense so far as contributing to society. E.g., we decide that kids need an education, so they are forced to even if they don't want to. But this doesn't include enforcing a random person's moral beliefs on other children - if it's not on school time, then that's up to the parents. And it certainly doesn't include that when it does so at the expense of a child's education!
They should be following a path better than just what is legal.
And who decides that path? It's all very well saying "society", but there is no single entity called "society" with a sinle opinion, and these decisions are not made by "society". Your claim it is "society" is highly misleading.
The descisions are made by the school, or by the interfering strangers who decide to complain, because they seem to think they have a say in what another person's child does in their own time. That's not society. Even if you believe that what a child can do should be decided by mob rule (which is pretty absurd), you're still getting a biased representation, as people who believe otherwise aren't going to be making complaints.
If someone does post on a website about a crime they commit, and a school administrator noticed it and considered it plausible, the proper course of action would be to notify the police, and let them decide what the repercussions would be.
If the cops charge him with a crime, or say he's potentially dangerous or whatever, then sure, the school can then consider removing him from the student population. But the school does not have the right to judge and sentence this kid based purely on some downloaded text. It's outside their authority, and probably outside their resources and experience to determine whether or not the kid is actually guilty or not.
This is actually a non-surprising extension of schools needing to cover their ass in regards to this sort of thing. Because so many parents can't be bothered to be parents, they're expecting the schools to do it for them, and suing them when they don't. But this is just the schools treating the symptoms (getting sued), instead of the disease (parents not caring). It's not a fair or good solution for the kids, and it's not sustainable.
One time I threw a brick at a duck.
I have had the unique ability to talk to some of those teachers that are what /. is currently 'slamming' as regards to ther abilities and desires to teach. Just as they are entering the profession.
Guess, what, even as friends they are exactly as described. No inclination to teach student show to think for themselves, just pure memorization of facts and tidbits. Hell even the science teacher, who is a very nice lady, doesn't want her students to experiment on their own. They just refuse to teach students the theory of a subject, rather than the plain mechanics. Closest example would be deciphering Shakespeare into the technical components, while never presenting him in his full prose. So of course its boring, and never imparts the whole picture.
Don't get me wrong, these people are full of zeal to impart knowledge to their students. The problem?
They are afraid of the school system. They have to follow some very rigid guidelines, and with administrators refusing to remove their heads from each others rear ends, they have no ability to change the policies.
Fire the administrators, and encourage the teachers to teach the entire picture.
Oh and always remember, those who want power, should be the last to recieve any.
True, but physical planting of evidence is something that most people actually understand, and it entails a certain amount of risk on the part of the planter (plus, you actually have to have said drugs/guns/bombs/etc. to plant).
By making something that's written on the internet a violation, it means that someone can sit at home with nothing but a computer, and possibly a camera to take photos with, and produce that "evidence."
It lowers the barrier to entry on producing incriminating evidence to a very low level, which is very different (in degree, if not in kind) from what's required to frame someone in a more traditional setting.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
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But if he is writing fiction, or writing about legal but objectionable activities he partakes in on his own time, that is his, and his parents business, keep the schools out of it.
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I agree with you, minus one detail. Most parents aren't making their kid's on-line activities their business. Someone who actively fantasizes about doing things of that nature does have some problems, and since in this case (it being a child) someone *should* make it their business.
My point was parental apathy is causing schools to do this.