School District Creates MySpace Pledge

30 May, 2006 at 10:07am ET Article published in Tech

All your MySpace are belong to us…

Before posting racy blogs on social-networking sites such as MySpace, teens in an Illinois school district might want to think twice. The consequences of such behavior could get them removed from extracurricular activities.

The board for Community High School District 128 voted unanimously this week to require students participating in after-school athletics, fine arts, and other clubs to sign a pledge agreeing that posts on the Internet containing evidence of “illegal or inappropriate” behavior could be justification for disciplinary action.

School officials said they will not conduct regular searches of the main social-networking sites, but will respond to tips from other students, parents, or community members. The new rule will go into effect at the start of the next school year.

Who gets to define “inappropriate”?

Source: NewsFactor Network

Comments

30 May 2006 ~ 10:19am shwaip and why only:

students participating in after-school athletics, fine arts, and other clubs
30 May 2006 ~ 11:29am drasnor Before I graduated suspension from extracurricular activities was the standard mid-level punishment above detention but below ISS, OSS, and AEP.

-drasnor
30 May 2006 ~ 12:10pm Sledgehammer70 That is Bull****... it is things like this that piss me off, I think it is the parents that should monitor there kids. Now if some jerk hates the top notch quarterback he can easily scam his way online and make the kid look bad and get in trouble.

I see tons of exploits with this.

Create a temp site that throws a kid under th bus for the most part, take a few screen shots and than pull the site offline and turn int he images. How does the kid fight it? they can just say oh you must have taken it down to avoid getting introuble.
30 May 2006 ~ 1:01pm Thrax I think that a school has no ****ing business dictating what can and can not be done on the internet.
30 May 2006 ~ 1:48pm madmat After the school shootings I think this is perfectly acceptable. These kids go online and talk about who they hate, who they want to kill and other crap and when this is brought to the attention of the authorities they say "It's freedom of speech, our hands are tied".

If you don't like the fact that the school district is trying to do a bit more than watch the world go to sh!t around them that's too bad, I'd rather see these idiot kids get stopped before they ruin the lives of more people.
30 May 2006 ~ 2:11pm profdlp I don't see how this is likely to prove to be an effective method of curbing school violence. The threat of exclusion from "after-school athletics, fine arts, and other clubs" is not likely to stop your Columbine-style goons. Those skunks weren't exactly members of the Glee Club or the school Drama Society...
30 May 2006 ~ 2:20pm madmat At least it's a step in the right direction. Do you really think that the kids that are openly doing illegal activities on myspace are the glee club types in general? I highly doubt that this will have any effect on the afterschool activities type kids there anyways. The computer club types are smart enough to not do something incriminating, the glee club types are too boring to do something daring and the jocks are too macho to get caught excersizing their brains behind a keyboard.
30 May 2006 ~ 2:26pm profdlp That's my point. How is threatening to throw them out of a group of which they are not a member to begin with going to change anything?

If the punishment for shoplifting was that you would no longer be allowed to sing French Opera while juggling dachsunds, would stores start uninstalling their security cameras?
30 May 2006 ~ 2:37pm madmat First steps are always small. They have to dip their metaphoric toes in to see what the water is like before jumping in in cannonball fashion. I'm sure that if the protest to this is minimal and the repercussions are low there will be larger sanctions made.
30 May 2006 ~ 3:59pm jradmin

madmat wrote:

After the school shootings I think this is perfectly acceptable. These kids go online and talk about who they hate, who they want to kill and other crap and when this is brought to the attention of the authorities they say "It's freedom of speech, our hands are tied".

If you don't like the fact that the school district is trying to do a bit more than watch the world go to sh!t around them that's too bad, I'd rather see these idiot kids get stopped before they ruin the lives of more people.

Unfortunately though, I see this as doing jack sh!t to keep schools from going to hell. The first place the schools need to look is at home with the parents. What kids do after school is no damn business of the school if it doesn't concern activities tied to the school. If thats the case, should a school make kids sign a pledge to stop them from hunting because they get exposed to guns that way?

Lets look at the big and "logical" picture here. Schools are trying to put more pressure and contol on students so that they can't be held liable for the actions of said students when something occures.

Who gets to say whats innapropriate or not? Some tight-@ss old twit who's never used the internet much less had a kid?

How bout we use this example. Would you let the government dictate what you can and can't do on then internet when you pay for it? Will you let them tell you whats innapropriate or not? What if you were really pissed at something the president did, then posted here that you think he is stupid and should die in a fire. That trips a red light and the next thing you know your getting charged for threatening the president, even though what you said you would never actually do or have any part of.

You can only exert so much control from the machine before it starts to break down and kids really start to rebel even further. If you want a robot, goto the store and buy one. If you want a child then be prepared to live with the fact that the child needs to be able to have some freedom and make decisions for themselves with PARENTAL GUIDENCE. If we want the schools to raise our children then we need to stop having kids naturally and just grow'em in test tubes.

Ok, off my ranting box now.
30 May 2006 ~ 4:15pm madmat

jradmin wrote:

Unfortunately though, I see this as doing jack sh!t to keep schools from going to hell. The first place the schools need to look is at home with the parents. What kids do after school is no damn business of the school if it doesn't concern activities tied to the school. If thats the case, should a school make kids sign a pledge to stop them from hunting because they get exposed to guns that way?

Lets look at the big and "logical" picture here. Schools are trying to put more pressure and contol on students so that they can't be held liable for the actions of said students when something occures.

Who gets to say whats innapropriate or not? Some tight-@ss old twit who's never used the internet much less had a kid?

How bout we use this example. Would you let the government dictate what you can and can't do on then internet when you pay for it? Will you let them tell you whats innapropriate or not? What if you were really pissed at something the president did, then posted here that you think he is stupid and should die in a fire. That trips a red light and the next thing you know your getting charged for threatening the president, even though what you said you would never actually do or have any part of.

You can only exert so much control from the machine before it starts to break down and kids really start to rebel even further. If you want a robot, goto the store and buy one. If you want a child then be prepared to live with the fact that the child needs to be able to have some freedom and make decisions for themselves with PARENTAL GUIDENCE. If we want the schools to raise our children then we need to stop having kids naturally and just grow'em in test tubes.

Ok, off my ranting box now.

But you fail to understand that the government can and will (and does) hold reign over what we do on the 'net. How many child molesters are busted posting kiddie pr0n on the 'net? How many warez sites are shut down? You obviously have no clue as to what freedoms you don't have in this fine country.

When kids start making threats against their fellow students do we just stand idly by and say "Ah, they're just being kids, fsck it" and then try to console the parents of their victims as their child's brains are being shampooed out the the school library carpet? Yes, indeed the parents are responsible for the actions of their kids but in today's world parents don't want to discipline little Johnny because the quacks think that doing so will hurt the little darling's self esteem. Screw that. Parents of kids that do commit violence against their fellows should be tried as accomplices because they allowed it to happen by not being a true parent rather than being a genetic donor.
30 May 2006 ~ 5:10pm drasnor

madmat wrote:

At least it's a step in the right direction. Do you really think that the kids that are openly doing illegal activities on myspace are the glee club types in general? I highly doubt that this will have any effect on the afterschool activities type kids there anyways. The computer club types are smart enough to not do something incriminating, the glee club types are too boring to do something daring and the jocks are too macho to get caught excersizing their brains behind a keyboard.

That may have been the case ten years ago but it is not true today. I don't know if you've visited any middle schools lately but every twelve-year old I've found knows how to use a computer proficiently. Many of them have MySpace accounts, blog, and love a good practical joke. The school districts have no sense of humor these days which I believe contributes to the problem they're attempting to solve. If educators took themselves a little less seriously instead of being pompous and arrogant their students would respect them more. Some of the greatest teachers I have had the privelege of studying under knew which problems they could defuse or solve themselves and which needed the attention of higher authorities.

Contrary to whatever you may believe, all troublemakers in schools have been identified by the time they leave middle school. It is never a surprise when they start a fight or vandalize the school; the only question is how badly will they be punished or how good is their parents' attorney.

The potential for abuse of this piece of legislation has already been noted. I believe that its abuse is extremely probable due to how nasty people can be to each other, kids in particular. I know I would have abused it when I was twelve.

It is freedom of speech, and the police's hands should be tied. It isn't fair to the functional families and normal kids to have to put up with a system designed for criminals. Treating everyone like criminals won't solve anything, identified problem children and their parents need to be required to spend time having their attitudes professionally re-adjusted.

-drasnor
30 May 2006 ~ 10:54pm airbornflght I totaly agree that this is a crock of ****. There is no sense in it, it is just another atempt of a school to dictate what kids can and cant do. I hope that every kid they hand that to tears it up and throws it in their face at the exact same time. I dont care if a johny fuggdup goes on myspace and says he is gonna blow the whole school away, it doesnt matter, its part of your freedom of speech, and the only thing to police can do is watch the kid. which is what needs to be done.

You can not legally supress everyones freedom of speech because of one or two people have some problems and neeed many...MANY years of psycological therapy. No back to legality, If I go on myspace and say I got plastered, and their is a picture of me holding a bottle of vodka, the police can do jack sh!t about it. Although, I can tell you that it is as sure as hell is hot that my parents would. Which comes to another point, it is not the schools job to be the parent. The school is here to teach kids, not raise them. The school should let parents discipline their kids, and if the parents think that letting their kids drink is okay, then that is the parents responsibility. I actually have a friend whose mom lets us drink, but takes our keys and makes us stay at the house, because she would rather us do anything like that under her supervision and where she can control the atmosphere. And I come to another point. The more that parents, the government, the schools say not to do something, the more that the kids want to rebel and do it. I think that the school needs to get the stick out of its ass and accept reality.
30 May 2006 ~ 10:59pm entropy Another reason MySpace needs to be removed from existence. Honestly, that site is nothing but a black mark on the internet.

Ugh.
30 May 2006 ~ 11:01pm Thrax A customer today asked me if I used MySpace. I said "No," very flatly. She said, "You're lying." I said, "No, I'm an elitist jerk about the internet, and I hate MySpace."

I was lol'ing like crazy in my brain.
30 May 2006 ~ 11:06pm airbornflght I say keep it, the emo kids and idiots need a safe haven, they have found it, as long as it doesnt spread.
2 Jun 2006 ~ 12:36pm jradmin

madmat wrote:

But you fail to understand that the government can and will (and does) hold reign over what we do on the 'net. How many child molesters are busted posting kiddie pr0n on the 'net? How many warez sites are shut down? You obviously have no clue as to what freedoms you don't have in this fine country.

The examples you chose to show here are KNOWN AND IMPLICIT ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES THAT THERE ARE US LAWS AGAINST.

I'd say I'm pretty knowledgeable about what freedoms we do and don't have. I spent 2.5 years underwater to help protect yours.

Hell ya they should be busting sicko's and theives. Don't you think upholding laws is a freedom? You wouldn't want your kid being in one of those pics or your computer taking a big crap on you hmm? What these schools are doing is just plain out stupid. Do I like Myspace? Hell no, I dont have an account there nor will I ever. I think its a waste of internet use, but the fact of the matter is that its there and it's not going away. We can sit here all day and blame whoever we want to blame about things like Columbine ect ect...but at the end of the day the kids live, sleep, and grow up under one roof.

If the parents can't raise their children right then they don't deserve them. It's not the school or the governments job to raise your kids...it's yours. I was ass-whooped all my life growing up, and I tend to think it made me into a relitavely good person. If you can't spank a kid then be creative and punish them some other way.

My point is that dicipline starts at home, end of story. Schools should worry about whats going on at school and stop screwing with kids so much and let them be kids.
2 Jun 2006 ~ 4:39pm airbornflght

jradmin wrote:

My point is that dicipline starts at home, end of story. Schools should worry about whats going on at school and stop screwing with kids so much and let them be kids.

Yeh, about the parents not spanking there kids anymore...yeh right. at least here in oklahoma. When I was about 12 and feeling where the line was, I told my mom that if she ever spanked me I'd call the cops. You know what she said. Go ahead, Call the cops, or DHS, their number is in the phonebook, they will come and take you away from me, I will fight it, spend all my money on lawyers and legal fees to get you back in my house, we wont have a dime left to us, so we will eat beans and not have any nice video games, computers, or cable, but you'll be back, then I'll spank your ass again...TRY ME:necro:

But you see, the problem is that parents are scared now days, when I was cashier at Kmart for 6 months, kids would come through and want a toy, or a candy bar, and their parents (mostly their mom's) would say no, put it up. Ok, so the kid keeps asking and he throws a fit, they try to control him, and it usually doesnt work. A few kids called their mom's a few words, such as ones that start with a 'b'. Okay, let me tell you how it worked when I was growing up. Andy asked for the candybar or toy, mom says no, I ask for it a few more times to see if she will cave, nope, so then I would beg and whine a little, then she would turn around, and politly say, "You are not gettign it, if you dont put if back on the shelf this minute, Im gonna spank you when we get out to the car." I had this one lady after her kid throw a fit, I made a remark that my mom would have smacked me if I ever did that, and she said, "I know, but he's just too cute, its just a phase." I im thinking, yeh, that phase is gonna be permanent if you dont whup his ass.

Now if I would have called her any kind of obseen language or even a stupid name such as "butthead", I would have regreted the moment I did. A couple of the kids that came through my line t kmart I was tempted to bend over, smack upside the head, and tell 'em how it is. cant do that now though can we? Parents just need to get a backbone instead of letting their kids run all over them.

And yeh, we should let kids be kids, ie: not give them a cellphone when they are 6 years old, I didnt get a cellphone until I was 16 years old. What can a 6 year old possibly need with a cellphone, I have yet to figure this out??? Kids dont need all of this crap that parents are giving them. When I was younger, I had a small trampoline, a bike, and some rollerblades. Me and my friends would have so much fun with my walkie talkies, now days kids are on the computer more than they are outside, my younger brother that is 13 sits on the computer more than 3/4 the time he is awake. I am outside almost from the time I get up ~6am - ~3:30pm and I blame childhood obesity on that too, My brother is 4 years younger than me, but he outwieghs me by 20 pounds, and I am even a little overweight myself by about 10-15 pounds. I weigh 150, and he wieghs around 170, he should weigh about 120-130 at the most. I weighed 120 in 10th grade. I dont consider him obese, but I do consider him fat, which I cant really say anything to him, cause I weighed 150 in 8th grade I took it all off, but when a kid is 12 years old and weight 200+ pounds, that is just sick and I dont blame the kid, I actually feel sad for the kid that has to grow up like that.:sad2: I blame the parent. </rant>
5 Jun 2006 ~ 6:13pm Armo Myspace = funds terrorism

these days thats pretty much all you have to say. and blam the NSA will be all over it