Slashdot Mirror
Facebook Photos Land Eden Prairie Kids in Trouble
slim-t writes "The Star Tribune is reporting that students have been disciplined for photos of them on Facebook. 'Eden Prairie High School administrators have reprimanded more than 100 students and suspended some from sports and other extracurricular activities after obtaining Facebook photos of students partying, several students said Tuesday.' Is the school right to do this? My opinion is that the students should know not to post pictures of yourself breaking the law."
I'd just like to know what all those administrators are doing cruising Facebook pages looking at the students in their school.
Really, it seems kind of strange that school administrators would find these kinds of things without someone explicitly bringing it to their attention. Don't they have better things to do than sit around and look at pictures of the students? The argument could be made that this is pretty creepy.
Also, if the students are breaking the law outside of school hours, isn't that a matter for the police and not the school?
Time to repeal the drinking age.
This isn't a "rights online" question. It's a natural consequence of the stupid prohibition laws we have. They need to be repealed.
If the only way anyone found out about the drinking was looking at Facebook after the fact, then how was it harmful?
I think that the kids are pretty stupid to post photos of themselves doing illegal things on the Internet, but neither is it the administrators' business to be scouring Facebook for such things. Their job is to deal with things as they're brought to their attention, not be a surveillance force.
"16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
First off, the kid is a liar.
Second of all, if he's freely distributing evidence of himself breaking the law, he's lucky it's just his school that is punishing him.
Third, he's lucky it's just him getting punished and not his parents.
Kid breaks law, gets in trouble. The internet was mildly involved. News at 10:00. Bitching on Slashdot at 9:30.
Knowing several teachers, I have to ask this: is it at all (naively) possible that this admin is doing what he thought best? It seems to me like he's trying to straighten out these kids' lives (at least by his interpretation of life, mind you.)
It's surprising, I know, but some teachers actually care about their students. Not just whether they make the school look good at scholastic meets and football games, not just whether they pass all their (irrelevant) standardized tests. Some teachers care whether or not Joe Quarterback makes it home from prom nite. They actually care whether Suzie Cheerleader makes it home from prom nite unfertilized.
Just a thought. I didn't have the greatest high school experiences myself, but even I know not all school officials are malicious animals prowling 'That Facebook Thing' for whom they may devour.
There is, in fact, some middle ground left to on which to stand.
Personally, at my school, they have a policy that if you violate a policy outside of school grounds within sight of a school official, or a school official is latter reported of the policy you broke, you will be reprimanded as if you were on school premise. People don't seem to remember that youth are still citizens, and are granted all the rights of the constitution. Schools extend and deploy their power in scary ways, forever under the umbrella "For the Children."
http://www.youthrights.org/
You say you're a nerd who is picked on by the popular jocks. Do I have a plan for you!
1) Take a buddy nerd and sneak into a party where your victim will be (since you're a nerd you obviously weren't invited)
2) Hand the jock a beer, have your friend snap a picture during that second he's holding it (but before you're being pounded with it)
3) Post picture to Facebook using a fake account
4) Wait for jock to be suspended
I'm still trying to figure out how to fit "Profit!" into there as well. Maybe blackmail?
All these "well you shouldn't have posted the picture" posts are forgetting the very common case where someone snaps pictures of a bunch of people and posts them all onto Facebook. It's amazing how fast the camera phones can go off if you do something stupid even for a second at a party.
Almost every single USA law is based on Puritan ideals that started a long time ago. WE firmly believe that restricting people and controlling them is for their own good. Restrict alcohol, hell we even banned it for a few years for incredibly stupid reasons. We are doing the same now for drugs and sex and anything else deemed to be "unholy" or "bad" based on old Puritan ideals from over 300 years ago.
It's the root of our obesity, and almost every other problem that the rest of the world seems to not have.
Problem is , today you are called a nut for questioning the puritanical ideals.
The other problem is the whole point of the article shines light on a bigger problem.. Our children are incredibly stupid. They do things they know are wrong and will get them in trouble if their parents or officials find out about it, and then they publish it with incredible detail in a public forum and then SIGN IT!
The current crop of children here are incredibly stupid.... I blame the use of Corn syrup.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
If the pictures are posted to a profile with public access, what privacy is there to invade? You can't put these pictures up on display, then get upset that people see them.
Probably delivered by a kid who got picked on by the popular alcohol chugging kids.
I was in the EP school system from Kindergarten until halfway through 9th Grade... and I recall it was pretty clique-ish and people were particularly nasty and cruel to other kids.
Most people might say it's the same in every high school, but I went to 3 high schools my freshman year (EPHS inclusive). And the high school in Connecticut and especially the high school in Arizona were a LOT nicer in terms of students' attitudes and treatment of other students.
Sounds like revenge!
Oh yeah, it took a LONG time with the district's lawyers to make sure things were kosher. There's nothing wrong with logging all the shit they did. Every parent signed an agreement stating all computer activity was logged, every login was prompted by a legalese message stating all activity was subject to logging.
Not that I'm all bonered up about annihilating a kid's future because he/she did some stupid shit while they were young, but the line must be drawn somewhere. Using school equipment to post pictures of highly illegal exploits is beyond that line.
Slashdot is proof that Sturgeon's Law applies to mankind.
In my case, it's possible but not probable. It would have taken quite an effort to generate the leagues of information (mostly photos) we managed to gather before the hammer fell on these kids. These were very explicit images of people doing very dumb things. Not only that, but the user accounts matched and everything. It would have been more work than just earning the scholarship justly, I'll tell you that. We were very thorough, lawsuits are not good PR, especially right before a referendum.
In the case from the article, that could be certainly be true. I'm glad I'm no longer in school and that when I was I didn't give a rusty rat fuck about scholarships or any of that. It's far too cutthroat for me.
Slashdot is proof that Sturgeon's Law applies to mankind.
My wife and I don't drink or smoke and never really have aside from the occasional toast at a wedding or a new year sparty. Still this is too draconian. What about communion at church? They can't even be present? They can see their uncle when he has a lit cigarette? I couldn't allow them to toast at new years?
Each new years my folks use to let me and my brothers have a sip of wine and made us eat sour kraut for luck. It was a tradition. (I haven't eaten kraut since. My luck has been fine.) My wife is Italian enough that we eat spaghetti with the secret family meatball recipe at Christmas. Her family makes all sort of other Italian dishes and also finds a glass of wine to be obligatory. The school would tell me my kids can't go to the Christmas dinner at Great Grandma's? That would be another impact that the school has no right to impose.
Perhaps I need to start having words with the school now, before my kids reach high school. And if they confirm this and are not flexible to my wishes for my children, then my lawyer will have to start having words with someone.
So much for that idea of "the punishment should fit the crime". Hmm, what you are saying or portraying is disagreeable
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
Welcome to America. Where we try to preserve a child's innocence until they are 30 years old, or married.
I see the glass as full with a FoS of 2.
LOL you sure got me! That's right! Were you there, too? You came all the way from Bussum, The Netherlands to help us pour through all the documentation, the photos, interview the kids, and deal with the cops? No? You don't say! Well then how'd you know it was only alcohol? Oh wait, it had nothing to do with alcohol and you're a stupid Eurotrash asshole. Nevermind.
Slashdot is proof that Sturgeon's Law applies to mankind.
I'm glad someone got some use out of my post. Certainly there are less than desirable aspects of America. But I don't need some holier-than-thou European to point them out, especially when it's based on some fictional account of events he/she invented in their head and not relevant to the story in any manner. I know plenty of great Europeans, I work with them all day. That said, there's plenty of shitty ones too. It's not like America has a monopoly on assholes.
Slashdot is proof that Sturgeon's Law applies to mankind.