Internet Pranks in Schools

Ferante125 writes "An interesting article about online pranks by students and teachers' responses to them. There are some interesting stats that sounded a little hard to believe. My immature side finds it funny and my more mature side is interested in the legal aspects." For the most part it seems like this article thinks pranks are basically just name calling and flaming on websites.

Comments

Re:Does defacing websites count as a prank?

[Malevolyn]

Actually, that exact thing happened recently on a site I run. The teacher emailed me and just asked me to take the post down, and also said he didn't hold me or my site responsible. Of course, the site rules clearly state that the posters are responsible for what they post, not us. But still. I'm glad to see that at least one teacher handles this in the proper way (ie, being civil and hating the correct party). According to the teacher, this poor kid is getting slapped with a lawsuit and criminal charges for defamation of character. Oh well, ce la vie.

Re:Does defacing websites count as a prank?

[jahudabudy]

Actually, at least in NC, racial slurs in conjunction with threats are illegal. Hate crimes. The threats are illegal by themselves, but the added "hate" aspect increases the penalty.

There is a difference in arresting someone for threats, and yet a WHOLE other thing if trying to arrest for 'thoughts' and opinons expressed. That latter one gets scary.

You have to put it in a historical context. Yes, in a perfect world, people should be allowed to express thoughts and opinions with out fear of the consequences. Unfortunately, NC and other places have quite a bit of experience telling us that it is a short quick hop from threatening someone based on their race to actually harming them b/c of their race. You can criticize someone's race (the KKK is perfectly legal), but you can not threaten them. You can't threaten anyone, legally, but so called "hate crimes" add an extra penalty in an effort to head off things like lynching and gang-raping someone simply b/c they are the wrong color. After 50 years or so of *winkwinknodnod* b/c the victim was black, swinging a bit too far the other way doesn't strike me as that bad of an idea.