David Baxter PhD
Late Founder
Students' blogging may get them suspended
By Roy
The Libertyville-Vernon Hills Area High School District 128 board has voted to suspend students for "maintaining or being identified on a blog site (that) depicts illegal or inappropriate behavior."
Is this for real? I don't see how this can be enforced, and it is easy to see how it can be abused. I am publishing this blog under the name "Roy". Say I called myself Roy Johnson. I could get the real Roy J. in a lot of trouble with the school.
Do you think the real Roy Johnson would sign a blog or a comment under his real name? It seems to me that most blogs are de-identified in this manner. And who defines what is "inappropriate"?
Kids have enough to worry about without having to worry about getting suspended for a blog. How about some education or counseling about online risks? This isn't easy, I know. I called the parent of my child's friend to warn him that his daughter has her cell phone number readily available on another friend's MySpace page. He treated me like I was the Volunteer Fire Department calling at dinner time on a Friday night. I even emailed him the link. The number is still there.
Maybe I should have emailed her school principal. Got her suspended. That would teach her not to blog inappropriately. Of course, what would she do at home while suspended? IM and blog with all the other homebound blogging convicts.
At least the NSA isn't going after them. Yet.
By Roy
The Libertyville-Vernon Hills Area High School District 128 board has voted to suspend students for "maintaining or being identified on a blog site (that) depicts illegal or inappropriate behavior."
Is this for real? I don't see how this can be enforced, and it is easy to see how it can be abused. I am publishing this blog under the name "Roy". Say I called myself Roy Johnson. I could get the real Roy J. in a lot of trouble with the school.
Do you think the real Roy Johnson would sign a blog or a comment under his real name? It seems to me that most blogs are de-identified in this manner. And who defines what is "inappropriate"?
Kids have enough to worry about without having to worry about getting suspended for a blog. How about some education or counseling about online risks? This isn't easy, I know. I called the parent of my child's friend to warn him that his daughter has her cell phone number readily available on another friend's MySpace page. He treated me like I was the Volunteer Fire Department calling at dinner time on a Friday night. I even emailed him the link. The number is still there.
Maybe I should have emailed her school principal. Got her suspended. That would teach her not to blog inappropriately. Of course, what would she do at home while suspended? IM and blog with all the other homebound blogging convicts.
At least the NSA isn't going after them. Yet.
