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  Student Can Sue for School's Facebook Fouls, Judge Says

  JP 12:51 am on February 19, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: facebook (160), first amendment rights, Judge Says, Judge SaysStudent, Katherine Evans, magistrate judge, Ms. Sarah Phelps, nbsp (1,002), Pembroke, pembroke pines charter high school, Read (820), School, South Florida, Sue

  Filed under: Web, Social Networking

  

  Back in 2007, a South Florida teen found herself in hot water after using Facebook to vent her frustration with an English teacher. Katherine Evans, who was at the time a Senior honors student at Pembroke Pines Charter High School, was suspended for “cyber-bullying” her teacher. Evans had created a group on Facebook called “Ms. Sarah Phelps [her teacher] is the worst teacher I’ve ever met!” After a few days, Evans removed the group, and assumed that was the end of the story. But several days later, she was called into the principal’s office and suspended — an action that has remained on her permanent record.

  The high school may have thought that it had settled the matter, but it had underestimated Evans’s tenacity and anger. In December of 2008, with the aid of the ACLU, she filed suit against the school for violating her First Amendment rights. School officials asked that the case be thrown out, but this week a Magistrate Judge rejected that petition. Evans’s lawsuit will now go to trial.

  Continue reading Student Can Sue for School’s Facebook Fouls, Judge Says

  Student Can Sue for School’s Facebook Fouls, Judge Says originally appeared on Switched on Tue, 16 Feb 2010 15:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  Judge Rules Students Can Be Suspended for Fake MySpace Pages

  JP 12:51 am on February 10, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Judge Rules (2), Mercer County (2), MySpace (6), myspace profiles (2), nbsp (1,002), Pennsylvania (7), Read (820), School, Schuylkill County (2), schuylkill county pennsylvania (2), U.S. (64), Witold Walczak (2)

  Filed under: MySpace, Web, Social Networking

  A U.S. appeals court ruled Thursday that schools can legally suspend students for creating fake MySpace profiles, but only if the fabricated online personas poses some sort of school disruption. A three judge panel in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania came to their decision after a student posted a sexually explicit parody of her principal on her fake MySpace page. The panel ruled that the school could legitimately expect the post to disrupt normal school activities, and thus granted authorities the right to suspend the student. As HuffPo reports, though, another Pennsylvania court in Mercer County ruled, in a nearly identical case, that high schools don’t have the right to regulate a student’s digital activity at home, arguing that a child’s MySpace posts fell under the umbrella of his or her right to free speech.

  As social networking has become more prevalent in middle and high schools around the country, school authorities have been seeking some sort of definitive ruling on whether or not they have the right to police students on the Internet. As Witold Walczak of the ACLU tells the Washington Post, “The law was unclear and now it’s in a state of chaos.” To make matters worse, a case of this nature hasn’t yet reached the Supreme Court, so lower courts are forced to use older high court rulings on the boundaries of school jurisdiction as their only legal compass.

  Continue reading Judge Rules Students Can Be Suspended for Fake MySpace Pages

  Judge Rules Students Can Be Suspended for Fake MySpace Pages originally appeared on Switched on Sat, 06 Feb 2010 12:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  Judge Rules Students Can Be Suspended for Fake MySpace Pages

  JP 12:51 am on February 9, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Judge Rules (2), Mercer County (2), MySpace (6), myspace profiles (2), nbsp (1,002), Pennsylvania (7), Read (820), School, Schuylkill County (2), schuylkill county pennsylvania (2), U.S. (64), Witold Walczak (2)

  Filed under: MySpace, Web, Social Networking

  A U.S. appeals court ruled Thursday that schools can legally suspend students for creating fake MySpace profiles, but only if the fabricated online personas poses some sort of school disruption. A three judge panel in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania came to their decision after a student posted a sexually explicit parody of her principal on her fake MySpace page. The panel ruled that the school could legitimately expect the post to disrupt normal school activities, and thus granted authorities the right to suspend the student. As HuffPo reports, though, another Pennsylvania court in Mercer County ruled, in a nearly identical case, that high schools don’t have the right to regulate a student’s digital activity at home, arguing that a child’s MySpace posts fell under the umbrella of his or her right to free speech.

  As social networking has become more prevalent in middle and high schools around the country, school authorities have been seeking some sort of definitive ruling on whether or not they have the right to police students on the Internet. As Witold Walczak of the ACLU tells the Washington Post, “The law was unclear and now it’s in a state of chaos.” To make matters worse, a case of this nature hasn’t yet reached the Supreme Court, so lower courts are forced to use older high court rulings on the boundaries of school jurisdiction as their only legal compass.

  Continue reading Judge Rules Students Can Be Suspended for Fake MySpace Pages

  Judge Rules Students Can Be Suspended for Fake MySpace Pages originally appeared on Switched on Sat, 06 Feb 2010 12:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  Man Fired for Using School Network to Hunt Aliens

  JP 10:43 am on December 3, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Arizona Republic, Berkeley (2), Brad Niesluchowski, high frequency radio, higley unified school district, nbsp (1,002), network (3), network systems administrator, Read (820), School

  Filed under: Computers

  Part of being a professional is knowing how to separate work and play. For example, if you’re a network systems administrator that’s interested in extraterrestrial life, you shouldn’t search for signs of it while on the clock. Unfortunately for Brad Niesluchowski, common sense is illusive.

  According to the Arizona Republic, Niesluchowski resigned from his position with the Higley Unified School District in October, after officials began investigating suspicious activity on the district’s computers. As it turns out, Niesluchowski downloaded a software program called ‘SETI@home’ to every computer in the district. The free program, which was developed at the University of California at Berkeley, is designed to search for alien life by monitoring high-frequency radio signals.

  Continue reading Man Fired for Using School Network to Hunt Aliens

  Man Fired for Using School Network to Hunt Aliens originally appeared on Switched on Wed, 02 Dec 2009 16:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  Girls, ACLU Sue School Over Punishment for Racy MySpace Photos

  JP 12:53 am on November 3, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Austin, disruptive influence, fall sports, Indiana (3), indiana girls, MySpace (6), nbsp (1,002), Read (820), School

  Filed under: MySpace, Web, Social Networking

  Two teenage Indiana girls have sued their high school after the administration punished them for posting sexually suggestive photos of themselves on MySpace, the Associated Press reports. The ACLU, which is representing the two sophomores, argues that the school overstepped its bounds by handing down the punishment and, in so doing, violated the girls’ rights to free speech. Attorneys with the ACLU also pointed out that the photos didn’t involve the school, and that officials needlessly humiliated the two by making them apologize to an all-male board of coaches. The Supreme Court has previously ruled that schools do have the right to punish students for off-campus behavior, so long as the school can justify that the behavior was disruptive and that similar activities were likely to occur at the school, itself.

  In this particular case, the girls took photos during a sleepover held during their summer vacation and posted them on MySpace, adjusting the privacy settings so that only their friends could see them. Eventually, though, the photos circulated throughout the school, and, as some of them showed the lingerie-clad girls licking a phallic lollipop, Principal Austin Couch banned the girls from fall sports, and made them apologize and undergo counseling. According to Couch’s attorney, he was simply enforcing the school’s athletic code, which allows a principal to punish student athletes for any activity that “creates a disruptive influence on the discipline, good order, moral or educational environment at Churubusco High School.”

  Continue reading Girls, ACLU Sue School Over Punishment for Racy MySpace Photos

  Girls, ACLU Sue School Over Punishment for Racy MySpace Photos originally appeared on Switched on Mon, 02 Nov 2009 09:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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