Students suspended, expelled over Facebook posts
Summary: Three students in the seventh grade have found themselves either suspended or expelled after posting inappropriate comments about their teacher on Facebook.
Two students have been suspended, and one student has been expelled, over negative Facebook postings they made about a teacher. The individuals are in seventh grade at Chapel Hill Middle School, meaning they are either 12 or 13 years old, according to My Fox Atlanta. The children are accused of violating a portion of the school code that is a "level one" offense, the worst possible: "Falsifying, misrepresenting, omitting, or erroneously reporting" allegations of inappropriate behavior by a school employee toward a student, according to AJC.
Alejandra Sosa, an honor roll student, said she regretted posting a Facebook status calling her teacher a pedophile. She has been suspended for 10 days. "I was just expressing myself on Facebook, because like I said I was mad that day because of what he [did]," Sosa said in a statement. "So, I mean I had no intentions of ruining his reputation."
Sosa is currently drafting an apology to her teacher. At the same time though, she said her school principal, Jolene Morris, violated her privacy by ordering her to log into her Facebook account at a school library computer. Morris then reportedly read the offending post and ensuing responses from friends before ordering Sosa to delete the posts. As many as 15 children made two dozen posts about the teacher in the Facebook conversation, but their penalties were not as severe (for example, a one-day suspension from school).
William Lambert, also an honor roll student, had the same feelings as Sosa after he was reprimanded for calling the same teacher a rapist. He has also been suspended. "I shouldn't have done it," Lambert said in a statement. "Because I could have still been at school, like right now, if I never had commented on the post."
Taylor Tindle was expelled for posting that the same teacher is bipolar. The student's mother asked not to be identified but said she believed the school's punishment did not fit the crime and pointed out that her child did not even get a chance to apologize before getting kicked out.
At least two of the students' families plan to hire attorneys. Douglas County School officials said the three students violated the disciplinary code but that they could not comment because the parents plan to fight the disciplinary charges in a school tribunal on March 10, 2011. The students could face even harsher penalties, including expulsion and banishment to a school for children with behavior problems.
The case will be very important in deciding what falls under free speech and what the school can discipline students for. We'll definitely be hearing more about this one as Facebook and other social networks continue to grow in popularity.
While I do agree that what these students said was wrong, I don't believe they should be punished for what they did. They need to be disciplined, sure, but the school should not have a right to get involved. This is a very fine line we're talking about.
Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily email newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.
Talkback
RE: Students suspended, expelled over Facebook posts
However, I think the teacher in question should have sued them and their families for defamation of character and gross false claims.
The school should not have involvement in the punishment as the incident did not happen on school computers or on school grounds.
If not the school, who?
Yes, they are just kids, but they have to learn somewhere and apparently the parents aren't doing the job.
RE: Students suspended, expelled over Facebook posts
Then their parents will nail em to the wall for it.
But the school should not be involved in something that does not happen on their grounds.
The girl is epic hypcrite: of course, she MEANT to ruin teacher's reputatio
RE: Students suspended, expelled over Facebook posts
RE: Students suspended, expelled over Facebook posts
"Private Facebook" is a contradiction in terms. Children need to be taught that. They also need to be taught that slandering someone ? even in private ? is a serious offense.
The cases of these students were handled poorly in several ways (mostly the school overreaching their authority), but discipline of some kind was definitely called for.
RE: Students suspended, expelled over Facebook posts
RE: Students suspended, expelled over Facebook posts
First, thank you for your military service.
Second, I disagree that these students have the right to say anything they want, free of consequence, regardless of whether the venue is Facebook, school hallways, or the mall.
Slander and/or defamation of character have legal ramifications for adults ... holding people accountable for false and damaging statements is NOT a violation of anyone's First Amendment rights.
To let these kids off with a slap on the wrist -- after making the ugliest and most devastating accusations anyone could level against [i]anyone[/i], let alone a teacher -- would effectively condone such behavior.
We can debate whether or not expulsion was an appropriate punishment, especially if the kids involved caused no prior trouble, but they most certainly needed to learn that their words have meaning and consequences.
Free Speech
A right to defamatory speech
Just a quick clarification. Unlike yelling "fire", one does have a right to engage in defamatory speech or Facebook postings without the risk of government intervention or criminal action. However, it may very well give rise to civil action. I'm not sure that the school's actions will stand up in court, and don't know if they should. The school was likely acting as an agent of the government and therefore may have inappropriately overstepped its bounds.
However, absent evidence that the teacher was in fact a pedophile or a rapist, it appears obvious that there is plenty of room for civil action. Merely spreading a rumor among friends "in private" does not shield one from defamation liability in most states, particularly if it is not a few people who do not interact or know the teacher, but, as is often the case on Facebook, dozens or hundreds of people within the teachers workplace and community. It would seem patently obvious that, even if the child did not realize the gravity at the time, he/she was trying to inflict damage on the teacher, and likely succeeded.
That being said, I'm not sure financially ruining a family over this is wise. The children should help mitigate the damage they have caused, and should be "punished" in a reasonable manner, but it is unlikely that the damage to the teacher at this stage is irreparable, and they should all live and learn from it.
RE: Students suspended, expelled over Facebook posts
RE: Students suspended, expelled over Facebook posts
Ghandi would say your response is ridiculous
Lawyers make every argument adversarial. This is unethical and divides people whereas they should learn to live better with each other.
Children often talk in terms like this about teachers, it's normal. What isn't normal is for the teacher to overhear it (or, if they do, they have the nous to develop bad hearing). This is the same for management in an organization. The only thing here is that the kids didn't figure any adults would intrude on their personal conversation.
The school and the teachers have been ill advised here, someone could have quitely taken the kids to one side, explained the public nature of the chat, and helped them make it hidden or deleted. (enforce privacy).
This whole case is ridiculous. Kids are kids, they don't always know how to behave, they make mistakes. The adults in the situation were clearly not mature enough in their response. Adversarial relationship no, should very rarely have anything to do with school/kids.
RE: Students suspended, expelled over Facebook posts
How dense are you to not realize the unboundingly destructive nature of the accusation of pedophilia, and the lasting impact it will have on his reputation?
media whore - your ad hominem attack on my intelligence = hypocrisy
media whore - your ad hominem attack on my intelligence = hypocrisy
And the other bit of hypocrisy is your tag "Media Whore".
Kids talk about "fraping" when a friend hacks their facebook. The article didn't report the use of the word paedophile it said "rapist". As frapist is common terminology amongst kids, rapist isn't particularly bad. But then people like you are publicly using indecent terminology all the time, what the hell are the kids supposed to do?
You are demonstrably by your own posts a hypocrite.
RE: Students suspended, expelled over Facebook posts
I think the solution lies in reasonableness on all sides, but until that is really the case, you have to be strict about untrue accusations of that nature.
RE: Students suspended, expelled over Facebook posts
RE: Students suspended, expelled over Facebook posts
sorry man, you dont accuse a teacher of being a pedophile, unless it is to the police with proof. Teachers have it hard enough as it is, no he will have something like this hanging over his head. I agree with an above poster, he should sue the family of the girl who initially posted about him being a pedophile. Maybe not go for millions of dollars, but to show her and other students who may think of doing something like this about another teacher what their actions can cause. It might make them think twice about slandering a person just because they did something they didnt like.
And for anyone thinking that no harm was done. Now, whenever anyone googles anything about this, and the teachers name WILL come out, his name and pedophile will be linked forever.
It was an obvious campaign to destroy.
Rumor campaigns have serious consequences, and those who make irresponsible accusations need to be held accountable. This situation could well have led to the teacher being investigated because of malicious and unsubstantiated rumors. The punishment of the students is appropriate to the gravity of their acts.
RE: Students suspended, expelled over Facebook posts
Oh, and just because the teacher and administration say these allegations are just "gross defamation of character" that means it isn't true? I have news for you, quite often these things are really true (i.e. the teacher actually sexually assaulted a student) but no one will believe the kids.
They should not have gotten punished, because it might be true and none of the kids are brave enough to actually bring up charges, as they know crap like this would happen. And yes, i've seen this happen from personal experience when I was in school.