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Student in Court Over Suspension For YouTube Video
kozmonaut writes "A model student is in court this week over 40-day suspension for posting a mocking in-class video to YouTube of 'Mongzilla', a high school english teacher. The student is arguing he had First Amendment rights to publish the video, though it was filmed without permission in the classroom. 'Kent School District lawyer Charles Lind says the suspension had nothing to do with online criticism of the teacher. Rather, it was punishment for the disruption created by the students secreting a video camera into Joyce Mong's class and dancing in a mocking, disrespectful manner while her back was turned. "It's quite clear that the district is talking about conduct in the classroom and not the videotape," Lind said.'"
What online rights is this about? Your right to post videos on the internet without being held accountable for what they contain?
Try getting a man on the street photo published sometime, you'll see.
I prefer Flambe as apposed flamebait.
Mongzilla is still up on Youtube.
All kids involved in the video taping the teacher are morons. I remember when it was common sense not to do something so blatantly stupid and self-incriminating while in school. What ever happened to being able to sit for 45 minutes without acting like a jackass?
668: Neighbour of the Beast
If you read the article, it isn't even clear at this point that the kid who's being suspended was involved in producing the video, either by acting up in the classroom or by assisting in filming it. It sounds like all he did was post a link to it on his Myspace page, and the school is busting him because they want him to rat out the people who DID make it.
"What happens if all the students produce a video of this nature? Expell all of them?"
Yes. Disruption of the classroom is a common reason for detention, and in extreme cases, expulsion. As a first offense, it might be a bit much, but if the offenders are continuously causing problems, they deserve the punishments they receive, even harsh ones. Pandering to the crowd of "save the children" and "no child left behind" is a mistake we're beginning to see the results of now. It will only get worse if we keep it up.
"Growing old is inevitable; growing up is optional."
But pot and fights never hurt anybody. He gave her bunny ears. There's no recovering from that kind of humiliation.
How can that be?
After watching the video, I have to say, that's pretty worth a lengthy suspension. It wasn't just a stupid prank, it was premeditated and fairly vulgar. If I were a teacher, and the whole school had watched the video, I'd be pretty embarassed. From a legal sense, sure, he has a 1st amendment right to 'say' what he did...but they also have the right suspend him for however long they want. It's too bad they don't have the legal right to backhand him for it too.
I'm sorry. The number you have reached is imaginary. Please rotate your phone 90 degrees and try again.
...expelled for 40 days. That's 10% of the school year...Really? A school year is longer than a calendar year?
The school should be embarrased to have her working there. The video points out she's unhygienic, the classroom looks disgusting, nobody respects her. That's just what I got in the first 60 seconds.
The school is alleging the video disrupted class - so that's why the student was suspended. So how disrupted was the class that they had to find the video on YouTube to know about it? Did the teacher not mention how 'disrupted' her class was? Ok then fire her.
Allowing this to go on is a disgusting example of a school board as a whole.
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Bride of Mongzilla?
Ace
Funny. I thought being a model student was about going to school to learn. I don't care about the GPA. They haven't been into any kind of (serious) trouble prior, they go to school, behave (more or less) and then go home. IMHO, a model student does NOT mean straight A's, although the two tend to go hand-in-hand, that is no guarantee.
As the posters say: "Not everyone gets to be an astronaut.", and it's true. Regardless of effort, some people simply aren't as smart as others. No reason to rake them over the coals over it though. If poor grades aren't due to a lack of effort, I have no issue with them.
Karma: Chameleon (mostly due to the fact that you come and go).
Based on the math, I'd say the parent poster went to a school that had an extremely short school year.
Did you seriously just say that if the teacher wasn't bothered, there wasn't a disruption in the class?
Schools don't prevent disruptions to help the teachers have a nice day. They do it to foster a learning environment for the students. If 3 or 4 of the students are doing something majorly disruptive like dancing behind the teacher's back, -nobody- is learning at the point, and probably not for a while afterwards.
The punishment may not fit the crime, but I don't remember a time in school when it -did-, so that's nothing new. I was once written up for not doing my work in class (I had finished already) and when the teacher tried to rescind, wasn't allowed. Why? The vice-principal didn't like me. He actually had the nerve to say 'I just wanted to see if you'd show up' when I got there. I still had to do clean-up duty for something I didn't even do. Oh yeah, fair.
I've always seen expulsion as a way to let the kids that didn't WANT to be in school, not be. If they want to pass after that, they're going to have to work their little butts off just to pass. They won't have time to disrupt the class any more when they get back. (Nevermind what they'll have to deal with from their parents.) Nobody I knew ever had it happen to them, though. They cared about their grades too much.
"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
Exactly, there is no free speech issue here; he had every right to make and publish the film and no one has stopped that but there are consequences for our actions. All in all this should be a very good lesson for him.