Both arguments related to school officials right to regulate student’s off-campus blogging make persuasive points, however, it should not be the role of school officials to monitor and punish students for off campus activities such as blogging. Students should have the right to speak their minds, whether it have a positive or negative connotation.
In the Tinker v. Des Moines Indep. Comm. School District, 393 U.S. 503 (1969) case the judge declared “In our system, state-operated schools may not be enclaves of totalitarianism. School officials do not possess absolute authority over their students.”[1] All citizens of the United States are protected under the Bill of Rights to have freedom of speech and have the right to verbalize or document their ideas and opinions.
In a posting from the Blog of the National Coalition Against Censorship website they discussed a “recent decision of student journalists at Faribault High School to move their newspaper, the Echo, online after it was shut down by the district superintendent. The superintendent shut down the newspaper after students refused to comply with the superintendent’s request to review an article prior to publication. Instead, students decided to form their own online newspaper, which is not funded by the school.”[2] This is a good example of students being able to make their voices heard without being under the discriminatory thumb of the school officials.
On the other end of the spectrum, it is understood, and rightly so, that personal opinions and pranks can lead to adverse reactions from those individuals who are part of the subject matter. This is not a new concept that has begun since the technology wave and will extend beyond the next phase of communication and expression. It is an unfortunate human nature to judge and become jealous of others which often leads to one acting out in some form or another in attempts to make the targeted individual, group or organization look bad. Bullying and practical jokes have been a part of classroom rhetoric for centuries. Unfortunately, these actions can lead to extremely adverse reactions. Cyber bullying should not be condoned in any sense of the matter but should not be regulated through the educational institutions. Students must learn, sometimes the hard way, that they must be accountable for their actions. These extreme cases should be left up to the local authorities to regulate and prosecute if necessary. Parents play the most important role in instilling morals in their children and teaching them about consequences for bad behavior or poor judgment. Making mistakes and being punished for the ones that are offensive and harmful is a part of a young individual’s rite of passage and how they truly learn how to be a productive and positive contributor to our society.
New York, NY, USA: Chelsea House, 2008. p 66.
http://site.ebrary.com/lib/sooner/Doc?id=10284452&ppg=67
[2] Zeidel, Rebecca. “Student newspapers move off campus and online: good news and bad news”. Weblog posting. Blog of the National Coalition Against Censorship. 09 January 13. Blogging Censorship from the National Coalition Against Censorship. http://ncacblog.wordpress.com/2009/01/13/student-newspapers-move-off-campus-and-online-good-news-bad-news/.
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