Detroit Free Press, March 23, 2007
St. Hugo of the Hills Catholic School in Bloomfield Hills has taken its concern about student postings on Web sites such as MySpace one step further than most schools.
It announced a policy that flatly refuses to enroll students with accounts on MySpace.com or similar sites. Students were told Tuesday to delete their accounts on such social networking sites if they wanted to stay at the school.
St. Hugo officials could not be reached for comment Thursday afternoon, but the policy is displayed on the school's Web site.
"Over the last several weeks, there has been an arrest of a teacher and a police officer, both of whom posed as children on the Internet to arrange meetings with unsuspecting children," according to the notice on the school's home page. "It is out of this concern that we have determined that the school must take a stand." The policy also says: "If a family chooses to allow their children to continue their MySpace.com account, they will not be allowed to continue as students at St. Hugo."
The school's Web site also pointed out that MySpace-style sites of some St. Hugo students violate the school's Internet policy against inappropriate comments, pictures and harassment.
"I'm perfectly OK with that," Bruce Calengor of Rochester said of the policy. His 13-year-old son, Charles, attends St. Hugo. "I don't allow him to do that sort of stuff. He has access to the Internet, but I don't allow that. ... I think there are plenty of things they can do without monkeying around on things like that."
Where on Earth does the school get the authority to expel or deny entry to students based on what they do outside of school hours and off school grounds? (My mistake, it's a Catholic school. See comments.) Potential criminal or social problems that arise from extracurricular activities are problems for the guidance counselor to deal with, and I can understand why administrators would restrict Internet usage on school time and equipment. But a blanket ban on something the school has no jurisdiction over? It's the equivalent of having a policy that states "No Students May Wear Hats" then expelling students that are found to be wearing hats, whether or not they are on school property. Isn't that utterly ridiculous?
Now this may fall under the same general category that allows employers to prohibit inter-office romances, itself of dubious legality unless the relationship has explicit repercussions within the workplace. Nonetheless, it is not the school's place to administer or discipline based on students' private lives, nor to punish those who have done nothing wrong.
MySpace's policy is to deny accounts to anyone under the age of fourteen. Parents can be held accountable for their kids' Internet access, and threats or harassment can met with the appropriate response by disciplinarians inside or outside the school. Online predators can be tracked and kids can be educated about the dangers of sharing personal information online. Popularity contests are entirely normal and meaningless. There are other, more responsible ways of dealing with the issues that caused this than suspending kids for their choosing to set up an account. If the TEACHERS and the POLICE are posing as predators to lure children, then what should be screamingly obvious is that the TEACHERS and the POLICE are the ones who need to be shaken down.
The people responsible for it don't want to care, though. It's easier for parents and teachers to institute a blanket policy than it is for them to take the time and effort to address the real, dangerous issues they fear, with the result that those issues go unaddressed and the kids have earned nothing but another tightening of the collar, all in the name of 'safety.' It's the same overstepping of authority and sweeping security reform that's caused the restrictions of personal liberties for adults, too.
Stay tuned, more on the way. But first, I gotta change my laundry over.
3 comments:
Where on Earth does the school get the authority to expel or deny entry to students based on what they do outside of school hours and off school grounds?
I think you forget that, as a Catholic school, they're completely within their rights to ban their students from having a MySpace account, or from anything they want. For a Catholic school, most of the bill of rights ends at the door; having a MySpace account falls under the 1st ammendment, which only applies to public facilities, not private companies or organizations. Companies can fire you for blogging about how much they suck, and Catholic schools can expel you for having a MySpace. The Catholic schools I've been in expelled people for many things, -- having sex, drinking, smoking, fighting -- whether or not they occurred on campus. If you do something they don't like, they aren't obliged to keep you there.
The only action that could be taken over this is by the Diocese, which I doubt, or by the school district, which can deny their ability to use district textbooks (this is on par with the Fed denying a state highway funding for doing something they don't like). Other than that, I'd suggest discussing it at their next PTA meeting if you're so concerned.
Hm. So it may be that it's within their authority to make these discretions; however, they still have a responsibility to decide whether or not to use that power.
I think my point is still valid, that is, that administrators are more willing to institute a blanket policy that doesn't address the core problem than they are willing to deal with the recurring issues at the root of it.
Speaking of which, my school has banned hats on campus. Thank God they haven't done so off-campus.
Post a Comment