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Missouri High School Principal Resigns After Posing As Student On Facebook
longacre writes "Suzy Harriston wanted to be friends on Facebook. The profile said she was from Clayton [Missouri] and had more than 300 friends, many of them from Clayton High School. No one seemed to question who Harriston was. That is, until the night of April 5, when a 2011 grad and former Clayton quarterback posted a public accusation. '"Whoever is friends with Suzy Harriston on Facebook needs to drop them. It is the Clayton Principal," wrote Chase Haslett.' Suzy Harriston quickly disappeared from Facebook, and Louise Losos, the principal, subsequently took a leave of absence, and then resigned."
Slow news day eh timothy?
I would say this one is still an okay story to put on Slashdot compared to some of the other constantly anti-Apple stories ( really, have we all come to a consensus Apple is evil and others are not? and I am not an Apple fan either ) and the anti-TSA stuff (how many stories do we need of that? We all are in agreement about that one for sure). Why is this particular story interesting? IMHO , how bad is faking your identity online ? I mean did she solicit students for sex ? or was it just to know the current vibe among? Did she just wanna be a cool principal by knowing what goes on among her students ? I briefly read the above article about the whole PE teacher thing. I dont know. Has no one used a fake name in real life ever? Does Facebook have a policy that you cannot lie about your age to underage kids ? I think it raises some interesting questions about online identities. I mean what if she was friends with some kid in the school and she got that kid to give her the username/password of their fb account (hypothetically speaking) and just looked at all her friends profiles and walls etc. Wouldn't that be similar to this?
When I was on Facebook, I didn't friend anyone unless I actually *knew* the person. If you friend someone on Facebook just because they friended you and you want a really big number of friends, well... the joke is probably on you.
Yeah, Facebook "creeping" seems unscrupulous, but it is much, much better than the alternatives. A nosy person is a nosy person - they'll get into your business if they want to, at least Facebook keeps them across a digital divide. Besides, it teaches the kids a valuable lesson - if you put it online, it's never private.
Yeah, Facebook "creeping" seems unscrupulous, but it is much, much better than the alternatives.
It's a boundary violation. Passing as a student creates inappropriate relationships between kids and people who are supposed to be authority figures and professionals.
"The alternative" is what, exactly? Spying on kids without probable cause and something resembling judicial oversight is just teaching them to expect the same behavior from law enforcement or other authorities once they become adults and make it out into the real world. Its probably different for 10-year-olds. But kids have to have a continuum of responsibility and autonomy. High school is right next to adulthood and people need to behave as such.
Have gnu, will travel.