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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.
I don;t use Facebook, but don't they have a feature to group people by what school they attend? An administrator would just have to sign up for his own school then just browse profiles while filling out detention slips.
Maybe it will be a good lesson to these idiots not to document their wrong-doing.
Virginia is for lovers. EVE is for griefers.
Reminds me of this NYT article on some George Washington University students who trapped their administration busting parties and had a great time at it as well!
This would seem to aid one of my longtime complaints; namely, that many schools at all levels of education spend far too much money on administrators and not enough on teachers... If they have time to be nosing around students' lives on Facebook, they probably don't have enough real administrative work to do.
I'd like to know how the fuck school officials are allowed to discipline students for activities not relating to school. That's the realm of police, is it not? You got together with friends to party? Nothing to do with school.
What the hell, man? I've asked before and I ask again: what the hell gives schools such a wide bullshit jurisdiction?
Perception is the thin dividing line between reality and fiction.
Let me get this straight. Kids taking pictures of themselves demonstrating that they aren't mature enough to drink responsibly is evidence that the drinking age limits need to be repealed?
I tend to agree that 21 is too old when 18 is old enough to vote, but this is a really poor example to hold up to argue that point.
She scans her students myspace pages all the time. It's pretty incredible what kind of information they put up.
:)
She doesn't do it because she's out to get them, though. If she learned that a student was smoking weed at a weekend party, it's not like she'd call the cops on them. I think she does it just to get a better sense of who her students are as individuals, and can then better tailor her instructions to each individual.
Let's say Katie is really emotional, and loves to answer questions in class. However, Katie has just gone through a rough breakup with her longtime boyfriend (we learn over myspace)... My wife would be a bit more understanding about why Katie is acting so depressed.
Or, she may learn that a student routinely smokes pot in the bathroom every morning before class. She might pay extra attention to that student, and if she smells pot on the kid while he's in class, she can certainly get the administration involved.
Or kids might comment about a stolen test. Or how they hacked into the computers and changed grades. It's crazy what they'll write about.
The point is, of course, don't put up information that you don't want your boss, teacher/SO/parents/whoever to read.
Posting anonymously for hopefully obvious reasons.
Being Swedish I find your alcohol policy absolutely bizarre. Schools policing students about what they do in their spare time? If a teacher did that over here they would probably get into legal difficulties as a result of it... Heck, my physics department has a student run pub in the basement and one of my lecturers even gave the students some time to advertise it. Despite of this ( or maybe because of ) we have a lower rate of alcohol induced diseases and a lower alcohol related crime rate.
I'm guessing this is the consequence of some "traditional" political opinions, much like Sweden insisting on having a state monopoly on alcohol, despite it being quite clearly demonstrated that it does nothing to prevent minors from obtaining it ( which is pretty much the argument in favor ).
- A fellow fourth grade student was caught possessing a beeper at school. FCPS believed the only reason anyone would possess a beeper would be to facilitate selling drugs. The student was expelled. His mother had given him the beeper the previous day so he would know when she was ready to pick him up from soccer practice. FCPS kept the ban on cell phones and beepers until 9/11, but not before threatening to suspend students who were trying to contact parents who worked in the Pentagon that day.
- A girl at my middle school was caught with a can of pepper spray. Her parents had given her the mace because she lived less than one mile from the school (FCPS does not provide transportation to students less than 1 mi from school) and had to walk through a rough neighborhood each day. She was suspended.
- My school once let out early and had a student fair on the soccer field. Attendance on the field was not mandatory, but students could not leave school grounds without a note from a parent. The administration was so concerned with our attendance that every student who left early had their car fully searched to make sure they weren't taking home other students.
Unfortunately, FCPS holds all bargaining chips before students even enroll. They force each student sign a "Student Responsibilities and Rights" document essentially stating you understand FCPS has the right to deal with you any way they please should you screw up. If you don't sign it, they won't give you a locker, a parking spot, nor allow you to participate in after school activities.If school administrators stumble upon pictures of a student doing something illegal, but not while at school, they should report it to the police, and the buck stops there. If a student's "extra-cirricular" activities don't interfere with school, then schools shouldn't interfere with them.
When I was a teenager, I had a friend who saw the school principal at the grocery store. After making eye contact, he gave him the middle finger. The principal was understandably irate and the following Monday suspended him.
When his parents found out, they called the principal and made it abundantly clear that he was far, far outside his bounds and pushed until the school rescinded the suspension. Don't think he didn't suffer consequences, they were just delivered by his parents whose duty it is to do so outside of school.
The duty of school officials is to discipline and teach students within the school environment. From 8-3 or on school grounds, that's it. Period. The minute the child leaves school grounds, he's under the purview of the law and his guardians. The second school officials leave the school grounds, they're just average folks. No legitimate power over and above any other schmo.
21? What country is this? Iran?
Surely you're not telling me the legal drinking age in the US is 21? Hell.. I the worst hangover of my life was the day of my 16th birthday when I could finally drink legally (everyone in this country drinks illegally from about 14). The second worst hangover was at the school party that year where they'd thoughtfully provided free drinks..
You'll never learn to drink responsibly unless you've drunk irresponsibly a few times when you're younger. OTOH I was drinking wine with meals at 7 years old, so was kinda used to it by then.
I know you're joking, but I've seen it happen. I worked at a high school for a while and we monitored all traffic looking for keywords. Also, any AIM traffic was logged, and any traffic to/from myspace was logged. We caught a bunch of kids doing some really stupid shit because they updated their myspace pages from school. I believe some of them lost scholarships over it. Oops.
Slashdot is proof that Sturgeon's Law applies to mankind.
A lot (if not most) high schools have conduct codes that all student athletes/extra curricular participants must sign that states they will not do illegal activities. This is basically proof that they went back on that code and they are being punished for it.
-nick
I've lost any faith in the schools.
In my sophomore year of high school I was suspended for telling somebody how to open the command prompt. Now, remember, that goes on my permanent record. Not only was I banned from using the computer (which is pretty tough when I'm in C++, Cisco, and Webmaster classes) but it also ruined my chances of getting into certain schools.
I may sound bitter, and what I'm talking about may be considered entirely unrelated but the point I'm trying to get across is that schools look for every opportunity they can to catch kids doing something "bad". Shouldn't they be trying to catch kids doing something good?
The security administrator at my school would ride around the parking lot in a golf cart and check to see if student's cars were unlocked. If they were, he had no problem in allowing himself to search their car. I just could never understand how people stood for this.
These students being suspended for Facebook photos (not smart of them, but the reaction is over-the-top) could very well affect their future. IMO, it's time for people (high school students in this case) to start standing up.
Were the kids rich or poor?
340A.503 PERSONS UNDER 21; ILLEGAL ACTS.
Subd. 3. Possession. It is unlawful for a person under the age of 21 years to possess any
alcoholic beverage with the intent to consume it at a place other than the household of the person's
parent or guardian...
Here in Georgia, they have been running ads and propaganda about how drinking under 21 is harmful and illegal, including parent's hosting of "drinking parties" for their underage kids. While the laws here are obviously different and still heavily conservative/religiously based (one of 3 states with no sales on Sunday still enforced as a State law, which the governor refuses to repeal (vetoed again last year on the basis that it teaches "time management") ), citing that drinking anytime, any amount before being exactly 21 years old as harmful is ridiculous. Kids will do stupid things, and when I have them, if they want to drink, they will whether I want them to or not. I would rather they do it with supervision of an adult, preferably me. This is about as idiotic as the policy of "stop handing out condoms because it encourages sex" crap. Arresting parents for doing what they are supposed to: monitoring and supervising their kids to keep the stupidity under control, is counter productive. Its also evidently not a state law as identified here, though they sure make it seem that way.
To re-link this thread back to the article, kids do stupid things, but the control of that stupidity is their parent's responsibility. The school really has no right to dig into the non-school activities unless it poses a threat to the school itself. If, as has been said higher up, these activities were reported to the school, the school's responsibility ends at notifying the parents and possibly local authorities (if legal infractions are severe enough: ie property damage).
Enough ranting....
Tm
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Can someone say what it was that was actually illegal? Drinking a can of beer at a party isn't illegal, surely?
I graduated from high school in midterm of 1972. I'm more pissed off than ever about this kind of bullshit now that I help pay for it. "God made the Idiot for practice, and then He made the School Board." Mark Twain
Tech Public Policy stuff
Sure beats shooting up the place.