Are teachers / faculty overreacting over what students post about them on Facebook?

Are teachers / faculty overreacting over what students post about them on Facebook?

  • YES - Students are just blowing off steam. They're not on school property or using school eqipment.

  • NO - Some of those remarks are embarrassing. They don't get a free pass over the internet.


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Since when is the internet "private"? In my opinion, anything you post online may as well be broadcast on TV. Teenagers seem to have this misconception that their blogging or facebook posts are somehow protected and private. I think its great that info can be shared among friends this way (i.e. face book, myspace), but please remember, access to your site isnt nearly as limited as you think it is. Lord, when I was a teenager I never even wrote anything in a diary I didnt want broadcast- I had 5 brothers and sisters! Talk about no respect for privacy!
 
There is a difference between free speech and slander in my opinion. It's one thing to say a teacher is a jerk, or idiot something along those lines and quite another thing to attribute an action to a person, like "he gives masturbation tips"

I am a big free speech advocate. But lies and bullying do not belong on the internet.

Thats exactly what I was about to say! I totally agree. There's a huge diffference between calling a teacher names and falsely accusing them of something illegal or offensive.
 
I agree that there's a difference between slender and accuses of crimes, but it's not for the school to do anyhting about it when it's on facebook. It's either the government or facebook itself. So I totally agree these comments should not be able to be on facebbok, but I don't think that, if someone posts such things on fb, they should be punished in school.
 
Well, I know this touches on a lot of issues that are in a sort of cultural transition state in the US now, ideas like freedom of expression, privacy, etc, are the subject of a lot of discussion, rethinking, nand whatnot, but what I wish is that parents would teach kids from a very young age, and with the same intensity as they teach them to use the restroom in the restroom, that they should keep offline info like name and location offline.

That is really the student's best guarantee of privacy. If he is just kewldood73678, and represented by an image of a popular anime character, and does not say where he lives, that is the best solution for concerns that he or his parents might have on the subject of anyone's displeasure with his writings impacting him, or them!

And it is good advice for mom and dad, too!

As someone pointed out, employers are increasingly using google to obtain information about applicants.

Not having one's real name appear anywhere on the internet is a great way to encourage those employers to turn to the applicant himself as their best source of information!
 
That's crazy...We all know that teachers b*tch and moan about their students, so what's so horrible about the students doing the same about them??

I mean, jeez...Ratemyprof.com or something like that was shut down because one prof. couldn't handle that his students thought he was HORRIBLE...

It's something that comes with the job
 
I don't think it's over the top after seeing some of whats been written by kids at my bro's school. I mean it's not violent or anything, it's mostly just name calling, but at the end of the day these teachers are human beings and I know I wouldn't want people writing stuff about me on the internet like that.

These sites get horrible and when loads of people gang up and leave messages I can't help but feel sorry for the person it's about. It's the same as bullying really but instead it's from the comfort of the bullys homes where they don't think it matters as much. It's rude and pretty disrespectful too.

I'm all for free-speech in life and on the net but if you don't like a teacher just tell them, or tell someone else about it, theres no need for these hate groups.
 
The internet isn't private, and it is probably a good thing that the kids learn this now. Better now than when they are in college and have trouble getting a job because of what is in their profile. If you put something out on the net, you can't have any expectations that it will only be seen by those you want to see it.

Also, Facebook/Myspace profiles can be set to private. This means that only the friends that you add can see the profile. Otherwise, anyone in your network (school, college, city, etc.) can see everything in your profile. The teachers could probably see what was written because they are in the same network and the children's profiles were not private. Really, all children should have private profiles.
 
Even though I uphold the first amendment with a militant fervor, I still believe we should all practice discretion. I'm all for freedom of speech and freedom of expression, but some of the stuff that's floating around the facebook is downright disgusting. Perhaps the parents should encourage the children to be a bit more diplomatic and self-edited. Don't post anything on a public board that can come back to bite you in the butt. That's just simple manners. The student used poor judgement. Lesson learned, hopefully. We all know that nothing we type is every really private, especially over the internet.

I wonder if the public would have been less sympathetic with the student if they had posted racial slurs or homophobic remarks about their teacher.


ITA times a million.

People should also think about how they can ruin someone's career or damage someone's reputation by internet remarks. Starting rumors, saying "so-and-so saw Mr. Smith hug Jenny and stroke her back." can cause lots of trouble.


The parents should use this as a lesson in responsibility for their kids. Sure, freedom of speech gives you the right to say what you want, but once you exercise that right, you have be ball-up and take responsibility for those words.