Students Suspended, Expelled Over Facebook Posts

An anonymous reader writes "Two students have been suspended, and one student has been expelled, over negative Facebook postings they made about a teacher. The individuals are in seventh grade at Chapel Hill Middle School, meaning they are either 12 or 13 years old, according. The children are accused of violating a portion of the school code that is a "level one" offense, the worst possible: 'Falsifying, misrepresenting, omitting, or erroneously reporting' allegations of inappropriate behavior by a school employee toward a student."

Comments

Re:makes sense

[shentino]

What the hell business does the school have exercising jurisdiction over a facebook posting anyway?

Did the student use a school computer to make the post?

question

[shentino]

How does the school district even have jurisdiction in this case?

Was the offending facebook post made from a school computer? During school hours?

It might be libel, but unless the school actually has jurisdiction this suspension and expulsion is a load of crap.

Re:They are going to have to pass a law

[flyneye]

I also support a "Don't worry about ridiculous facebook posts" law.
Public school teachers only work/teach half as much as they did 25 years ago.
Who will sue them for STEALING an education from students for their own personal comfort/laziness?
Like Wikileaks, blowing off steam about wrongdoers on facebook needs to be a worldwide public service.
(self)Proclaimed authority need a system of checks and balances that social sites provide the public.
Dictators and hoolums like Gadaffi, Obama, politicians and public servants can walk the straight and narrow path or have their wanderings reported by the people ,for the people. I mean, damn , it's either that or bloody revolt. Whadda you want?

Re:presumed guilty

[MickyTheIdiot]

We've made administrators lords of their little fiefdoms and all rights away because they are watching after kids and somehow children are sub-human. I don't see anyone would be surprised by any of the administrators behavor in this. The kids did something wrong here but we'll never know to what extent because the administrator made sure of it...

Re:Seriously?

[Posting=!Working]

I've been called a poopy head publicly by a 4 year old. A clear case of defamation of character. The child committed a crime. He should be punished as a minor.

See how stupid that is?

Claiming a 12 year old is criminally defaming an adult by calling him names to their friends is just plain idiotic. I guarantee that by your "punish everything" logic, you would have been locked up for life many times over from the things you said when you were growing up.