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Student Expelled From Indiana High School For Tweeting Profanity
First time accepted submitter OopsIDied writes with the story that high-school senior Austin Carroll of Garrett, Indiana was recently expelled after tweeting profanity from his own home, writing "Supposedly the school has a system which tracks students' social networks after they have logged in at school. Although the tweet was done at home at 2 AM, the school decided that such behavior was unacceptable and that the most fitting punishment was expulsion. He did use a school computer, but it was set up to use the school network even when used outside the school because the school claimed the tweet was associated with the school's IP address." As usual, TechDirt has some biting commentary about the expulsion. But Hey, at least they didn't throw him in jail.
They can enforce the rules as they wish (just like employers). Student should have used a private ISP, instead of the government-owned school network.
My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
Sounds like the school is really behind. They need to get themselves in gear and expel the 90% of the student body that says "fuck" on a daily basis in the halls, in the cafeteria and on the buses.
They can enforce the rules as they wish (just like employers). Student should have used a private ISP, instead of the government-owned school network.
Perhaps. But should a high school student have been expected to know this?
Maybe they should have opted for jailing him for life. After all, isn't tweeting "fuck" an incitement to the masses to commit rape?
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
Using profanity in the halls, cafeteria, and buses is safe, because such incidents are not visible to parents, school board members, or the general public.
Twitter, however, is visible to the whole world, so anything undesirable must be just as visibly punished.
All issues of who own what aside, honestly, who gives a fuck what the kid said unless it was like...death threats? Seriously...why would you expel someone for using profanity in the first place? A stern talking to, perhaps, but expulsion for this? Good lord.
"Those who would sacrifice essential liberties for a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - BenF
Actually this is interesting, the school has clearly established the punishment for doing this. So the easy way to protest this would be get a sizable percentage of the student body to swear on their twitter accounts. What is the school going to do? Expel 30+% of their student body? If they did, it would make national headlines and the people that run that school would become a laughing stock. It would also energize the debate enough where we could finally sort this out. And if they don't expel them, they can't expel this student.
Of educators, lawmakers having no idea what the internet is. "Hmm, since he said it from our address, it's like he's speaking for the school. The whole internet is going to thing we use bad language. It reflects poorly on me!"
I'm sure you've all heard this before, but it bears repeating here:
...fuck is the only word referred to as 'the f word... It's the one magical word. Just by its sound can describe pain, pleasure, hate and love. Fuck, as most words in the English language is derived from German ...the word fuieken, which means to strike.
Perhaps one of the most interesting words in the English language today, is the word fuck. Out of all the English words that begin with the letter 'f'
In English, fuck falls into many grammatical categories:
As a transitive verb for instance.. John fucked Shirley.
As an intransitive verb... Shirley fucks.
Its meaning is not always sexual, it can be used as...
An adjective such as... John's doing all the fucking work.
As part of an adverb... Shirley talks too fucking much.
As an adverb enhancing an adjective... Shirley is fucking beautiful.
As a noun... I don't give a fuck.
As part of a word... absofuckinglutely -or- infuckingcredible.
And as almost every word in a sentence... Fuck the fucking fuckers.
As you must realize, there aren't too many words with the versatility of fuck...such as these examples describing situations such as:
Fraud: I got fucked at the used car lot.
Dismay: ahhh fuck it.
Trouble: I guess I'm really fucked now.
Aggression: Don't fuck with me buddy.
Difficulty: I don't understand this fucking question.
Inquiry: Who the fuck was that?
Dissatisfaction: I don't like what the fuck is going on here.
Incompetence: He's a fuck-off.
Dismissal: Why don't you go outside and play hide and go fuck yourself...
I'm sure you can think of many more examples.
With all these multi-purpose applications, how can anyone be offended when you use the word. We say use this unique, flexible word more often in your daily speech.
It will identify the quality of your character immediately.
Say it loudly and proudly: FUCK YOU!
Waiting for ad.doubleclick.net...
Remember kids, wiretap laws and the Bill of Rights don't apply to you when you're enrolled in school.
Anyone agreeing with the school here really needs to read TFA (specifically the TechDirt article). Apparently he Tweeted while at home, and the school had a system set up that tracked all Twitter logins, recording all Tweets on those accounts. The kid must have logged in subsequently to posting the Tweet, and their spy system picked it up.
I mean, what the fuck. The school is literally spying on its students' private accounts. I bet their system picked up Direct Messages too, all in the name of anti-bullying. I really hope this kid calls the ACLU and gets this shut the hell down. This is a huge violation of his and the other students' rights. If he had posted the Tweet from the school it may have been slightly different but still an overreaction. This is outright wiretapping, unauthorized use of an account, a declaration that students' private lives are subject to the school's rules... what the hell is going on here?
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
That said expulsion might seem a bit harsh, but we really don't know what else this kid has done or not done.
This.
In my mind, expulsion for this is the right punishment only if the student has a long record of other issues, including a suspension or maybe two. If so, I think it would be okay to expel him for even just spitting on the school sidewalk. If not, this is a ridiculous and difficult to understand result from a public school. Hell, I doubt even private schools are this punitive.
Swearing is bad manners and should be discouraged as a way of maintaining order and courtesy, but as far as I know, it has never impeded the learning of anyone or those around them. I sincerely hope this isn't some over-the-top punishment, and is instead, a measured reaction to a chain of incidents.
...and stories like the assistant principal at a Lower Merion PA school district spying through the webcam on student issued laptops (remember that?), I have to say one thing about student-issued laptops:
Laptops are cheap enough. Use your own. Treat the school issued one as toxic. Refuse it.
They are simply too dangerous to even turn on.
And those in authority wonder why they are distrusted.
--
BMO
Last I checked profanity was not illegal and generally protected speech.
You surrender a lot of rights when you enter a school. He was only there virtually, but he was using the school's network none the less.
On top of that, yes you have free speech, but there are still consequences. I can't run into a crowded theater and yell "FIRE" and expect to get away scott free.
schools are not the place for indoctrination of any sort
You're kidding, right? The whole point of the American school is to turn you into a boring, uncreative, mindless drone.
If that doesn't qualify as indoctrination, what does? |:
What do I know, I'm just an idiot, right?
Now, if as per HuffPost, he did it on his own time using his own equipment; then the school is way out of line.
I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
Phone 260.357.4114 press 3 for the principle's office
Here's the original local story:
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20120325/LOCAL0201/303259931
It appears the confusion all over the place here derives from the fact that there were two separate incidents. First, last year, he used school equipment to post a profane tweet and was suspended. Then, recently, he posted the above linked profane tweet, but it was from home, on his own computer, not on the school's network at all. They just saw it because they were examining his Twitter account because of the last incident.
Hopefully that clears up some of the confusion.