I read an article about Canadian high school students who were suspended for sending tweets that were “malicious, sexual and violent in nature” about their teachers. It got me thinking.
Read the article and then come back because I have a couple of things I’d like your opinion on.
Was this appropriate action for the School Board? In general, I’d say yes. The actions of the students is clearly wrong and they must realize that there are consequences for their actions. However, according to the suspended girl, the tweets were from “so long ago” that I wonder if this has any impact on the situation. How long is so long ago? Does it matter?
The girl interviewed in the article seems to act as though this really isn’t a big deal. She claims she’s said worse online in comments between friends. Does anyone else see a problem with her attitude? What’s going to happen down the road when she does this to her boss? Obviously, she either doesn’t have a clue or feels that talking about her teachers in this way is completely fine.
This didn’t take place in a public school. I wonder what would happen if this would have. I have a feeling the consequences may not be as strong.
The spokesman for the school had this to say about the school’s position on social media monitoring. “We don’t monitor social media, but when information comes to the attention of teachers, administrators, people like me at the school board, then we consider what that messaging is and we look into it,” Campbell said. I actually like this thought process. To me, it says, we trust you unless there’s a reason we shouldn’t. It’s a position I think more schools should take. Unfortunately, I’m not sure many do.
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The "loser" comment was not enough to warrant suspension, however if there were Tweets that were "violent in nature," as the article states, then that absolutely does warrant investigation and suspension or expulsion. We had an incident here where a student (jokingly) said she was going to shoot up her school on Thursday. It wasn't hard to figure out who she was and where she went to school. That was deemed a threat and we have a zero-tolerance policy. She was expelled. Even though the investigators, principal, and everyone else agreed that she was kidding, they still expelled her. I agree that it was the right thing to do and a good lesson was learned by her, and the rest of the school, I'm sure.
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