Private school principal forbids blogs and myspace profiles

I am wondering now about freedom of speech. I understand their concern, but if the students only do it at home, on their own time, then its none of the schools business.

what next? teenage girls enrolled in private school will be banned from having a diary? Or from writing fiction or essays?

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I agree with the above poster. If you want me to have take the control of my kid's life, let me do the parenting at home.

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The school certainly has the right to tell students what to do or not to do during school time and on school grounds, but what students do on their own time at home should be a parental decision. That being said, I would imagine because they are a private school, they are within their legal rights. But they are crazy if they think it will stop the kids. After all, how are they going to police this if the kids make the sites anonymous? Are the administrators going to go to all the students homes and search their computers? Come on. Get real.

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I don't understand why being a private school gives them any more rights over a kid's non-school hours. Can they dictate where you take your kid to church? Or what they wear on weekends? This seems blatantly unconstitutional, towards parents as well as kids.

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I can do a perfectly good job of supervision at home, thanks. I don't need any more govenment interference in my life.

For the record, the girls don't do myspace or chat rooms. They're much too young and I don't know enough to be selective for them. However, it's my decision, not the schools.

I'm hooked up with myspace as a way of keeping up with my younger political friends. I've have yet to use it myself.

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"I don't understand why being a private school gives them any more rights over a kid's non-school hours. Can they dictate where you take your kid to church? Or what they wear on weekends? This seems blatantly unconstitutional, towards parents as well as kids."

It's because the Constitution protects us against the government, not (in general) anyone else. A private school can tell kids, "don't do this or we'll kick you out," just like you can get fired for what you say on your blog (or even for having one at all).

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Yes Elizabeth I was just coming to say that. A private school can make any rule they'd like with the punishment simply being 'don't attend our school'.

Which is fair enough since we have a choice which school we go to....

On the other hand I hate this rule.

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I'd like to know how this private school knows which students have blogs. Who takes the time to check?

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I want to know how do you make your myspace profile private so only only friends that you add can view it? Please write back

--Jojo----

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Most private schools have rules as ludacris as this one. I know of some private colleges that have gone as far as to send people to clubs and bars just to catch people drinking and then expell them. I attened private schools for 12 years and all I can say is, if you do not like it you do not have to continue attending the school. It is obvious that this is not a good move on the school's part, but it is their choice.

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Well first off I would like to regret ever writing this considering the position in which I preside. Next I would like to say that this is completely legal because the parents have agreed to follow the rules set down by the school, or they parents should not enroll their children. I would also like to say that if this school implemented this action, I would not fight it, I would avoid it and work my way around it so as to fulfill my personal desires in the sanctity of my own home and to please the school in its rightful time and place. I would also like to bring to attention that it has been brought to my attention that this expansion of the school’s power may have extended into public where it does not belong in the institution of education that I currently attend. I protest against this invasion of privacy and question the school’s motives. Legal? Yes. Moral? No. What would be unconstitutional is if the institution of education and its administrators shall in any form or fashion, whether by punishment or by a mere negative comment on my action, reprimand this author. If the freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution, especially that of press and speech, shall be taught in the classrooms, it should be upheld in practice.

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If I were in that school I would be screaming 'suspend me!' for something as pathetic as this. Lets face it, once you're off their grounds, they have very little to no legal standing over your actions as an individual. The ONLY thing they may have regard to is should you be arrested for some kind of a felony. This in no way includes the World Wide Web. Besides, why doesn't the administration over there spend more time on lesson plans than going after kids for putting up a page on MySpace? All this does, is show where your hard earned money is going.

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Here in Florida (at least city im in) same thing goin on. One school already expelled 80 students and the dean saying its just the start. My school already has 30 students they are about to expel. These schools (private religious) dont lilke how their students are putting Christian as relgion and then having "inappropirate" music and language. They say it discredits their school and we are selfish for thinking it wrong of them to expel students. I have my own website I pay for and we pay them tuition, however if they don't like whats on MY website that I pay for, they can kick me out. I've gotten to the point where I want to put stuff on my myspace so I get kicked out so I can go to a school that doesnt monitor my every thought.

Before I quit, let me also tell you that my school (not 100% sure about the others) punish their students for things they do outside of school in the public. For instance, in the school handbook I can receive a demerit, detention, suspension, or even expulsion for attending a concert, holding hands with a member of opposite sex (nothing about same, we joke bout that), kiss, etc. in pubilc. A lot of kids in my school have gotten in trouble for wearing "inappropriate" clothing at the mall or holding their gf/bf's hand.

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I also find this issue to be questionable. It is great that this school sought to ensure the safety of students, but continuing school regulations pass the school campus seems to be inappropriate. These blogging websites are a symbol of free speech. Of course when a blog or myspace profile does pose as a threat to the welfare of other students it is important that authorities and school officials take action. Although when it comes to controlling all students it becomes a different issue. Indeed there are some students that use and abuse the internet just as adults, but everyone should not have to suffer due to another person’s deviant acts. It seems that the school wants to control what a student does in the privacy of his or her own home. It is not the school’s responsibility. School may talk about awareness, but parents have the main responsibility to monitor their children’s online activity. Coming from my own experiences in private school I am not surprised that they still try to control student activity beyond school campus. This school can still train student’s of internet safety, but not completely condemn everyone for being affiliated with a website that they joined by their own choice. Not all students use blogging and web communities as myspace for negative purposes. These schools sometimes forget that students have parents at home. If a parent find their child doing something inappropriate they will control the situation. The school administration should set up a school meeting for parents and informatively address the issue. This is a better approach then giving children an ultimatum without giving them the facts.

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to make your myspace private, set your birthdate so that you are age 15 or younger. there is no other way to do it.

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