There is another controversy raising the increasing assertion of authority of school officials over pictures and statements made by students outside of school. In Massachusetts, Jamie Pereira was suspended from school after a photo of her and her boyfriend, Tito Velez, both 16, holding Airsoft rifles was posted on Facebook. A caption beneath the photograph read: “Homecoming 2014.” The picture looks like a new American Gothic for some and a threat to others. However, the controversy again raises the limits and discretion of school officials in monitoring speech outside of school for students and teachers alike. There was good reason to be concerned but the punishment was due to the disruption caused rather than an actual threat from the picture.
The admitted mistake of the teenage couple was to put “Homecoming” at the bottom of the picture. School officials were legitimately concerned but this was not a preventative step but a disciplinary action. There is no suggestion of an actual threat intended by the picture. I fail to see why such problems cannot be addressed with a reprimand and calling in the parents. Both students have been suspended for an unknown length of time.
Superintendent Richard Gross insists that punishment is appropriate and will reflect the disruption caused when the picture was circulated by other students. Notably, the picture was posted hours after a Washington state teen shot five fellow students inside his high school before taking his own life. However, Gross insisted that “This is about the tumult created by their online activity.”
The teens were apparently just trying to come up with something different for their pre-dance photos. The photo was later removed.
Velez, who could not be reached for comment early Wednesday, reportedly said he and his girlfriend simply wanted to “do something unique and different” instead of taking typical pre-dance photographs.
I have previously written about the increasing monitoring and discipline of teachers for conduct in their private lives. We have seen teachers face discipline over social media pictures holding a weapon. Even a picture of a teacher holding a glass of a drink is enough to trigger discipline.
Once again, there is clearly a need for officials to act upon any threat. However, there remains a dangerous ambiguity over the scope and use of such authority. Given the ludicrous application of “zero tolerance” rules, officials commonly impose extreme punishments rather than exercise judgment (and expose themselves to the risk of criticism) over the handling of such controversies.
We have seen a steady erosion of the free speech rights of students in the last decade. The Supreme Court accelerated that trend in its Morse decision. Former JDHS Principal Deb Morse suspended Frederick in 2002 during the Olympic Torch Relay for holding up a 14-foot banner across from the high school that read “Bong Hits 4 Jesus.” The case ultimately led to the Supreme Court which ruled in Morse v. Frederick ruling in 2007 for the Board — a decision that I strongly disagreed with and one that has encouraged over-reaching by school officials into protected areas.
For a copy of the Morse decision, click here.
Civil libertarians hoped that Obama would appoint someone with a strong commitment to free speech and student rights. I was very concerned over the appointment of Sonia Sotomayor because of her role in the Donniger case where she ruled against high school student Avery Doninger who contested her punishment for posting an objectionable message on an Internet site about Lewis Mills High School. When she objected to the cancellation of a school event in vulgar terms, school officials barred her from running for Senior Class secretary. In Doninger v. Niehoff, the Second Circuit upheld the right of school officials to punish students for out-of–school speech in a major blow to both the first amendment and student rights.
This case has obviously different and more compelling facts for actions. However, this remains a picture taken outside of school with two airsoft guns. It would seem an appropriate cause for a telephone call and not some open-ended suspension in my opinion.
Source: Taunton Gazette
My grandkid’s public school ranks top in the state, above parochial schools and even private schools. It’s not true that kids learn nothing in public schools. If only city schools were as good as suburban schools, that is the issue.
For one, I am glad that these kids, ignorant or not, did what they did and more than glad that the administration suspended them.
So you approve of the “thought police”? That if someone says or posts something that is politically incorrect or something that YOU don’t approve of, they should be monitored and punished? Because this is what the school has done. The kids were not threatening anyone. They were just posing in a dumb photo that highlighted a hobby that they participate in. Posing in a private home, not at school. What if they were into calf roping and showed a tie down? Should they be banned from school because PETA might not approve?
How far into the private lives and thoughts and actions of students can the school intrude. How far into the private lives and thoughts can the Government intrude. Can the Secret Service come and harass you or arrest you for political dissent? For expressing your First Amendment rights of speech and expression? http://www.inquisitr.com/1572771/l-a-street-artist-sabo-confronted-by-secret-service-over-obama-tweets-video/
The precedent this sets is frightening. People who don’t like the thoughts of the students think that this is a good precedent, never thinking that at some point there may be OTHER people in charge of the Thought Police and that they themselves may be targeted.
Where is the NRA when you need them. Don’t these kids have the same rights as the idiots armed to the teeth wandering around Starbucks and food markets? Bad taste is one thing but what this really does is illustrate the new ‘American Gothic’. No longer is it all about workers and a pitch fork but weapons in the hands of children and far too many idiot adults. As far as this act on the part of the kids was foolish and perhaps a suspension is appropriate for no other reason than to raise the profile of the issue, they need, more than anything else, education. Unfortunately those that work in the law, write the law, pervert the law are more interested in their own egotistical command of the law. Rights are not given, they are earned, respected, and protected. The sooner we understand that sacred fact of what the authors of the constitution fought and died for the better. We spend far too much time diverted from the basic issues wandering around postulating on this and that interpretation of legal issues. For one, I am glad that these kids, ignorant or not, did what they did and more than glad that the administration suspended them. Now, the necessary fruit from this pile of manure should be a lesson learned by the kids and a wake up call for those Americans intelligent enough to be able to see how American Gothic has become America armed to the teeth.
When I was in HS, this would have been a non-issue, because we had neither today’s ubiquitous on-line social media nor administrative worry over ‘black swan’ school shootings like the Jaylen Fryberg incident.
Annie ~
I think this is an old Xmas picture. The wreath on the wall and the boy standing there in his socks tells a different story than it being a Homecoming picture.
The Superintendent overreacted. Jamie is guilty of being a 16 year old girl and a call to her parents would have been the appropriate response.
Since it is nearly non-existent on the federal level, one could hope that the various supreme courts of the states will interpret a greater free speech right under their state constitutions and afford this to their citizens.
These students did nothing wrong and the school completely overreacted.
Schools have no right to police what students think and say or how they act when NOT on school property and NOT under the direct supervision of the school. Period.
If there are concerns and a fear that those activities “might” be going to affect the ability of the school to maintain order or to cause disruption AT the school then there might be a cause for the school to have some discussions with the students and parents.
In this case, a meeting with the students to explain why these photos might be causing some angst among other students and the inappropriateness of linking the photos to a school event. I imagine the kids didn’t think at all about the wider implications.
However……it really isn’t the school’s business and if I were the parent I would be suing as well as removing child and putting him/her into a home school or charter school environment.
They don’t learn jack sh*t at public school anyway. You would be doing your child a big favor.
The girls feet pointed inward are classic indications of being insecure.
Nick – the girl’s feet pointing inward are an indication of poor posture.
Does anyone know body language. I do. I’ve studied it. But, for chissake, you don’t need to have studied body language to look @ the posture of these kids, the facial expressions, and see they are not threatening. The girl’s body language is discomfort and shy.
With the 14 year old Jaylen Fryberg school shooting in WA still fresh in everyone’s minds, it’s time for parents to check on the kids Facebook/twitter postings. And lock up daddy’s guns and ammo.
http://www.redstate.com/diary/lifeofgrace/2014/10/24/jaylen-fryberg-wa-school-shooter-grace/
Check out the mind of Jaylen just before he lost it. It was a love triangle dispute.
https://twitter.com/frybergj
Paulette, maybe it was an all season wreath, lol? Maybe they got their guns from Santa, Christmas of 2013.
These kids may have been making the threat as a joke, but they were still making a threat. As was just mentioned above, those guns have had the orange tips either deliberately removed or obscured to make sure the guns look real. It’s not at all an unreasonable reaction in today’s climate to think that such a picture with “homecoming 2014” written on it is meant as a threat to the people at the homecoming dance. Going back and saying “oh but I didn’t mean to cause a panic by shouting fire in a crowded theater” doesn’t get you off the hook and make you suddenly some 1st Amendment crusader… These kids should take their medicine on this and shut up.
School officials have nothing to do but check facebook for ‘online tumult’?
Why don’t they get a real job?
The bright orange muzzle tips have been removed from these toys which makes them look like “not toys”. That should be the controversy here but blind rage of this magnitude is rarely subtle.
Before this turns into vitriol, allow me to add a bit off regional and cultural perspective. I know this area of Ma. well. I have friends who live there. These kids are, based on their appearance and name, Portuguese. There are protected classes and cultures in this country. Portuguese are not among them. They are a great culture. GREAT food. Emeril Legasse is from near this area and is part Portuguese. They are mocked, looked down upon, like other protected groups, but they have never been given special protective status by the elitists who anoint that treasured PC protection. One is free to mock and ridicule w/ little problem. You get a little taste of this from the movie, Mystic Pizza. Julia Roberts played a Portuguese girl in that flick. Because of the ridicule, these great people have become somewhat insular. They date, marry, socialize amongst themselves. Many are fisherman which is a solitary profession. So, that MAY help explain to the “What were they thinking” brigade. All this said, they could be Hispanic, there are some Colombians in the area. But, the name, the look, the garb, says probably Portuguese.
Of course the education industry overreacted and overreached. That’s their specialty.
How old is that picture? There’s an Xmas wreath hanging on the wall.
We need a PC Czar. Where is Obama when we need him? Where is Arne Duncan? This sort of thing by administrators is bordering on the insane. Were tjhe Airsoft illegal? No? Is the FB account personal? Yes? Is the school administrator a busybody with too much time on his/her hands? Yes.
Political Correctness run amuck.
What on earth were the parents thinking? Unique and different, I think these two wanted to generate some controversy and boy have they. Was it a threat? I don’t know but I am sure it made some parents think twice about any homecoming dances.