Posts
I've waited until Wednesday to post this because I've been
doing a lot of back and forth on my opinion about the responsibility of schools
getting involved with online, off campus material; basically, cyberbullying. My
group was the con opinion but doing the online research showed me that a lot of
people are conflicted about this as well. Legally, there have been cases all
over the board, from the school district being sued for overstepping their
bounds to people accusing the schools of negligence for not stepping in sooner.
This is still new territory and the current laws aren't real clear when it comes
to cyberbullying.
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| Photo from langwitches on Flickr |
But this is about my opinion, not the law. In my opinion,
when does it stop? When do we stop blaming schools, teachers, administrators
for the faults in our kids? Cyberbullying, any bullying, is not ok. Schools can
take initiative and teach students how to behave as compassionate, productive
citizens which includes anti-bullying content. If an incident happens in
school, the administration has every right to serve consequences as they see
fit.
But for something that is happening off campus? I don't
think the school has the right to dole out consequences. They have the
obligation to inform the parents and possibly any other authorities, depending
on the situation, but suspending a student for posting something online is like
suspending a student for breaking their parents' curfew. It's not the school's job.
If a student is caught posting something online at school, then you may have a case. The
students should not, at the very least, be on a social networking site while at
school. But for something being done at home, it should be dealt with at home.
I really think this is something that is a parent's responsibility to deal
with.
This might not make me popular but I have to say I think the
whole debate is just a product of a greater problem. Parents are busy. A lot of
parents (not all) expect the schools to raise their children for them. Teachers
are expected to teach morals and social behavior along with academics. As a
teacher I know I spent time daily over how to treat other people, whether it
was in my lesson plans or not. Sometimes I found myself saying things that I
wondered if parents ever said to their own children. Now, with cyberbullying, parents
don't want to deal with the fact that their child might be a bully, might have
done something wrong. So they expect the schools to deal with it. Take the
power right out their parenting hands.
Schools deal with a lot. They have to deal with things that
happen at school. Once we start letting them into our homes to deal with other
issues, like I asked before, where does it stop? Detention at school for doing
something wrong at home? Suspension for doing something wrong at work? That
doesn't make a whole lot of logical sense, and having a school be responsible
for giving consequences for what was posted online doesn't make a whole lot of
logical sense to me.
Again, this is just one girl's opinion. Feel free to
disagree. This debate is obviously bigger and more prevalent in our society as
it even has our legal system baffled.
Links to a few articles I read:
Shauna, I agree with you to a point. Schools should not be allowed to dole out punishment for behavior that happens off schools grounds. Where I feel that we need to step in is when that behavior is carried into school and students are affected by it at school. In an article I read, Magid (2009) states that according to Nancy Willard, Director for the Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use, it may be okay for the school to intervene " if the impact of that speech is going to come to school and will substantially disrupt school or interfere with the rights of other students at school”. I know that when I am faced with a disagreement at school between students I am always trying to find the root of the problem so that I can help guide the students to a resolution. No matter where or how the problem started, I have to deal with it if it shows up in my class. I agree with you that it is not our 'job' to parent our students (even though at times I feel that is all I do some days!) but I do have to keep peace at school. Magid, L. (February 25, 2010). When Schools Can Discipline Off-Campus Behavior, Safekids.com, retrieved July 10, 2013 from http://www.safekids.com/2010/02/25/when-school-can-discipline-off-campus-behavior/