School District to Monitor Student Blogs

[yngliberal]

I believe they are overstepping their boundaries and I bet the ACLU will step in. If these kids were on these sites on school computers, fine but not while they are at home. That is wrong.

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School District to Monitor Student Blogs

Tue May 23, 9:42 AM ET

LIBERTYVILLE, Ill. - High school students are going to be held accountable for what they post on blogs and on social-networking Web sites such as MySpace.com.

The board of Community High School District 128 voted unanimously on Monday to require that all students participating in extracurricular activities sign a pledge agreeing that evidence of "illegal or inappropriate" behavior posted on the Internet could be grounds for disciplinary action.

The rule will take effect at the start of the next school year, officials said.

District officials won't regularly search students' sites, but will monitor them if they get a worrisome tip from another student, a parent or a community member.

Mary Greenberg of Lake Bluff, who has a son at Libertyville High School, argued the district is overstepping its bounds.

"I don't think they need to police what students are doing online," she said. "That's my job."

Associate Superintendent Prentiss Lea rebuffed that criticism.

"The concept that searching a blog site is an invasion of privacy is almost an oxymoron," he said. "It is called the World Wide Web."

The social networking Web site MySpace.com allows its nearly 80 million users to post pictures and personal information while communicating with others.

District 128, in Lake County north of Chicago, has some 3,200 students, about 80 percent of whom participate in extracurricular activities, according to school officials.

[Peanutcat]

1. So tell me something--

How are they going to know what blogs students post in? For example, what if one of the students has a blog here? Are they going to hack into student's computers to find out where they post? I don't understand how they can enforce this policy. Now if the school has a site, that's different, they have the right and obligation to monitor what's on sites they run.

[Kutjara]

2. Er, but people under 18 aren't permitted...

...to enter into legally binding agreements. So what purpose does this 'signing' achieve? Sounds like the usual intimidation tactic.

Anyway, why the need for some signing ritual? If the student's online behavior is 'illegal' that's a matter for the legal system. If it's 'innapropriate,' well, existing disciplinary procedures are presumably applicable.

Unfortunately, the old expectation that students are 'representatives' of their school and, therefore, responsible for their actions at all times, went out with the Glee Club. Many kids identify with anything but their school, and having the school try to impose its values on their off-hours activities is oppressive to them.

The Internet is fragmenting old communities and alliegences and forging new ones. It may shock educators that kids identify more with peers who live hundreds or thousands of miles away than with 'their own' community, but that just shows how out of touch many educators are.

[silverweb]

3. Good one.

This will never stand up: "...evidence of 'illegal or inappropriate' behavior posted on the Internet could be grounds for disciplinary action."

And just who gets to decide what's "inappropriate" ??

Are education funds now going to pay for after-hours spying on what our teenagers say?

This is insane!

:crazy:

[Viva_La_Revolution]

4. just priming the kids young

so they won't bitch about losing civil liberties later.

:mad:

[Hippo_Tron]

5. This is why 18 year olds need to vote

You wanna bet that the school board wouldn't be pulling this crap if they feared the wrath of hundreds of angry high school seniors who are registered to vote.

[Downtown Hound]

6. What a valuable use of the school's time

I mean, we could spend all of our energy on making sure they know how to read and write, do math, engage in critical thinking and debate, but no! What's really important is that we spend lots of extra manpower hours snooping into their lives outside of school and making sure they're not talking about beer bashes or sex or rolling up a blunt. Welcome to George Bush's America.