Slashdot Mirror
Student Suspended For Posting On YouTube
An anonymous reader writes "A Canadian student has been suspended from school and had the police called on him due to satirical animations that he posted to YouTube. Jack Christie, a 12th-grade student at the Donald A. Wilson Secondary School in Whitby, Ontario, Canada, created the videos in his own time, off-campus."
Considering he's not 18 yet, he isn't out of place if he's acting as juvenile.. as he is by definition of his age.
You're getting your panties in a twist in the same way as the board is.
Schools in North America at least--if not everywhere in the West--seem to think that their disciplinary powers extend to any actions committed by students anywhere during their years of attendance.
In my opinion, the only time a school should have the ability to initiate disciplinary action for an act committed off school premises should be after trial and conviction of a crime. Free speech protections often don't apply in schools (don't get me started on that), but a school has absolutely no right to restrict a student's speech off school grounds, and this would be aptly enforced by requiring disciplinary sanctions for off ground behavior be the result of a conviction in a court of law. This school would get laughed at if they even mentioned prosecution of this student for this behavior to a DA, so there's no reason they should be allowed to do this.
I am ashamed of my country when I can read that, and it isn't followed by "The staff members were promptly fired". Believe it or not, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms applies even to high school kids, and no, your petty little school rules do not trump those Rights.
The summery says: "Created the videos in his own time, off-campus."
The video says: "This was done up back in November of 2010, for an economics course project."
So I don't think its as independent from school as this summary wants to make you believe.
In your opinion, what is an 18 year old supposed to be doing, other than growing up? I think he's learning something very valuable right now - for example: It pays standing up for your own rights against authority - something most other grown ups have never dared to try themselves.
Second, if a student missed any essential classes because he is suspended, wouldn't it make all subsequent classes pointless because student won't be able to understand them (or, worse, misleading because student will misunderstand them)?
Right, so in order to combat this, a student has to either:
a) Work extra hard in his free time to study the topic enough to understand them
b) Fail miserably and have to resit/restudy or waste a year.
Both of which are punishments.
Its also rather symbolic. Kinda like being "Suspended from work with pay". Its meant to warn you that you might end up permanently like that.
The question should not be if he did it in his free time, off campus, but if it was related to the school.
I can imagine a lot of things which one can do "during my free time" and "off campus" which should get you fired from school, even if there is no crime which can be persecuted.
For example: contacting or ridiculing teachers in an inappropriate way (yes, these are employees and they have rights), the same for students (nobody should be forced to sit besides somebody bullying him at facebook, and if school is the primary contact for this person suspension is the right thing to do).
All the news messages like "xzy got ... for doing ... on facebook" withou specifying what the content of ... was are as stupid as saying "he got in jail for swinging a piece of wood through the air", which may be technically correct, but could also be a baseball bat hitting the face of somebody after swinging through the air.
Please dear media: separate means, motivations, tools, and fact of crime more carefully. It really does not matter today if you write somebody an insulting letter which you put up 1000 times in you town to lampposts or post an insulting video.
Andy Sanberg said on the nerdist podcast. Film school is where you get out all your bad ideas. so we shouldn't care whether its funny, the only reason we're even watching his stuff is the principal hasn't heard of the Streisand effect
I think you're the kind of person who gets fed up with this whole tired Freedom of Speech thing when you don't agree with what's being said.
Either you have freedom of speech or you don't. You can't pick and choose.
I live in Europe where there are many restrictions on what can and can't be discussed in public. I don't admire much about the politics in the US but one thing I very much admire is that if someone thinks something they have an absolute right to say it out loud.
I can't see the point of urinating on religious symbols but if the symbols are owned by the person doing the urinating then let them. If a lot of people admire such action they will get a large audience and if nobody is interested they will have wasted their time. It is the people who would ban it that I am most concerned about because it is those people who don't have an interest in free speech.
He sounds very mature and level headed in his reply to the school via this youtube video, where he says "Jack Christie Addresses the Board"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnW2_i0Q_i4
He also shows talent in writing and his style is something like South Park. The guy could have a career in the animation industry if he carries on with this kind of work. Isn't that what schools should be encouraging?! ... WTF is his tyrannical school for, if its not preparing him for a career!
Actually I would say it is offensive mindless crap. But then so is much of what is on YouTube and frankly Slashdot. Sorry but the people that did this should be dismissed. I don't know how they thought that they could get away with punishing a student for putting this on YouTube. If the goal was for people to not see it they failed completely. The student is now a hero and more people will now see this crap than ever. If was to protect the school that was also a failure. But then I still don't know how that school district got away with spying on those kids with their laptops! No jail time and no mass dismissal in that case so I guess anything is possible. I hope Canadians all over the country protest this action. Too bad that they will be fighting for crap like this video but in this case it really is the principle that matters and not the actual content.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
Who needs Transformers when you have a school that can turn into Barbara Streisand?
USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
Everyone knows that satire means you're dangerous. Let me explain:
Satire means you have no respect for authority.
Having no respect for authority means you have no respect for the police.
Having no respect for the police means you have no respect for their guns.
Having no respect for guns means you place no value on your own life.
If you place no value on your own life, why place a value on other people's lifes?
And since you value neither your own life nor that of anyone else you're practically guaranteed to commit at least a murder-suicide.
Satirists should be shot and then carpet-bombed for the safety of us all.
USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
What changes magically in a human being in those few nanoseconds before and after the 18th birthday? That's something nobody ever managed to explain to me sensibly.
We want to put a discrete point in time on something that is a gradual process spanning years. I know people who were responsible and mature before they were 14, and others who might have a chance to reach it should they live to 40. And while both are certainly the extremes, 18 will at best be the median age people mature at.
And since we put so much emphasis on this special quality "maturity", and so many laws, regulations, duties and privileges hang on it, from voting to driving to sex and criminal offenses, simply doing a "one size fits all" is most certainly going to end up with a lot of wrong decisions.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.