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
@ mespo
Ok. I clicked the link it is the same as your cut and paste and doesn’t answer my questions. Diary? Tip?
Mespo, dogs are strange creatures, the eat their own poo.
DBQ:
You can read it for yourself:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/05/21/978170/-20-Habits-of-Paid-Trolls
mespo – how does Daily Kos know the habits of paid trolls? Do they have their own staff?
From AAETS website:
“Before Littleton, Colorado over 90% of school-based bomb threats were pranks. Callers often gave little information, such as “there s a bomb in the building,” and hung up quickly. Many school administrators managed the bomb threats without evacuating. Currently, this must be weighed carefully against the statistical increase in more violent types of youth crime. According to the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco & Firearms, there were 2,217 bombing incidents in America in 1997, 107 (5%) of them occurred in educational settings.”
You ignore them now, you do so at your peril.
Mespo – we had picnics on the lawn and many smoked pot and cigarettes. Not I. Just the hoods and the heads. I don’t know what kind of idiots would stay in the building at their peril. It was fun. So I don’t know why everyone ratchets up the BS factor. (staying in the building – right – stupid -)
mespo – standard procedure for a bomb threat at a school is to find the bomb, not let everyone out. You just make them targets for snipers. You need to catch up. 😉
Paul, I have never heard of such a procedure that you mentioned about the bomb threat. The standard procedure is to evacuate a building being threated with a bomb and send in a team to address this.
Darren – I have never heard such a thing either – they always did cherry bombs when I was young.
Darren – having worked at schools where such plans have to be put in place, you do not send them out of the building. They are sniper targets. The bomb threat is used to flush them from the building. Teachers are taught how to secure their classroom and lock it down. Also how to check for anything that does not belong, like a bomb. A fair amount of training goes into this each year.
Mark, when you teach high school, let me know.
Paul, if there was someone wanting to pick off students with a sniper rifle they could simply wait until school let out and the scenario you describe would make itself available. The police would NEVER put students at risk by having them remain in proximity to a possible bomb having an unknown location or power. If this school that you allege had such a procedure it is contrary to reason.
Moreover, one has to look at it from a liability point of view because behind the scenes and out of the public arena that is often a motivating factor for better or worse. If the police or school district ordered the students to remain in the school and a detonation happened the liability against these two would be extreme.
The scenario is not plausible in the conventional sense in any manner.
Darren Smith – I just know what we were taught at the time. They may have decided to clear the buildings and screw the snipers, hell who knows with the idiot administrators we have.
1) Post one diary every quarter
2) Never tip
What is “diary” in this context? Dear diary….today I totally effed up a thread about First Amendment rights by bringing in gun control and serial killers as a side track. I’m so very cool. Troll under the bridge….rrrraaawaaaarh! Like that? 🙂
Tip? What does this mean here? Are we supposed to leave a gratuity like at a restaurant?
Not that I advise Bomb threats. The kids got in trouble if caught But this is ridiculous. Nationwide scrutiny is absurd.
We had regular bomb threats when I was in Junior High that Students called in so we could get out last period. I think its the Media amok 1984 Knocking at your door
Oh, I’ve billed $87.55 on this thread.
Annie:
When I used to keep hunting dogs, I found that when the dogs got out at night and bay at the moon, my reasoning with them to come back in didn’t work. I usually try to just ignore them until they turned-tail and come back in the gate. They are more happy for it and so am I.
Too many people were agreeing and making the case of the overreaction and overreaching of the school on this photo. So, an unpaid troll tactic of posting incendiary photos was put up to distract. Losing an argument on the merits. Hijack w/ inflammatory photos. But, fine. No one is going to change a vote based on ANYTHING that is done here like that. No policies will be made or changed. It’s the guy coming in the diner and saying in a booming voice, “BUSH LIED, PEOPLE DIED.” Some will say “That’s right.” Some will say, “Screw you” and most will ignore it, having heard it from the same guy many times before. All this is inconsequential. It is worth a “warm bucket of spit.” So, troll away. Nobody gets injured. It’s just folks talkin’.
Darren:
I’m a New Testament kind of guy: Matt.7:16-20
Darren:
Gun availability is more of a concern than gun efficiency. And most of that availability is through illegal firearms purchases by felons.
One US Government study found that “Greater gun availability increases the rates of murder and felony gun use, but does not appear to affect general violence levels.”
“Firearms are used in about 60 percent of the murders committed in this country, and attacks by firearms injure thousands of others. The risk of
being murdered with a firearm falls disproportionately on young people, particularly young black men.”
Daily Kos. Perfect!
Those are good examples of aspects of trolls, but as for those being paid to comment here I don’t see that.
If the shoe fits, so the saying goes. Is Spinelli once again trying to say something about my degree? It just never ends. Of course he won’t say my name when he attempts to disparage my credentials because he knows he’ll get deleted for invading my privacy…again.
See. LOL! Here’s what is @ the core of this incredibly flawed thinking about paid trolls. They think this is some venue where policy is made, elections, decided. That something said here is going to sway the course of human events. Blogs are a virtual tavern or local diner. People talk about what’s on their mind. Like in a local tavern or diner, there are all types of people. They range from funny, boring, sharp, dull, smug, easygoing, paternalistic, etc. Some taverns and diners have a good mix. Others are echo chambers. This was an echo chamber of “attorneys, govt. officials and academics.” Now, there are too many commoners.
Mark, I agree about the ammo & firearms improvement you mentioned.
Hmmm. I wonder how the school system should have handled this???
http://sadhillnews.com/2012/03/26/the-last-tweets-of-obamas-no_limit_nigga-trayvon-martin
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
20 Habits of Paid Trolls:
1) Post one diary every quarter
2) Never tip
3) Never completely disagree – just throw the comment thread off track
4) Post at the top of the diary
5) Never recommend (only gives issue more visibility)
6) Work in shifts so are ready 24 hours a day – 7 days a week
7) When comments get troll rated – dump ID and move to new ID
8) Use multiple IDs’ and computers so can post under as many as 8 names in a single diary
9) Have an alert system to have other post on diaries that are “dangerous” to their employers (most likely a Koch brother front group/health insurance co employee)
10) Mostly make hard to read cutting edge stories in their infancy – mainstream popular diaries get too many views for paid trolls to have much of an impact
11) Discourage new diary posters
12) Turn off readers with a hostile tone, vicious, or condescending attack
13)Call your statistics arbitrary, ask you to check your figures, doubt your analysis or facts,
14) Tell readers your story lacks facts, that your story lacks depth, that your story lacks research, that your links prove nothing, that your conclusions are wrong etc (of course a troll will never offer a shred of “evidence” to back up a single of their assertions)
15) Write using a dismissive, surly tone
16) Dismiss diary writer or comment posters as not quite right
17) Have a tag line about anything but what dKos is about – but not actually opposing what dKos is about
18) No personal identities on their page
19) Never offer any constructive ideas
20) Complain that someone is not following the dKos “rules”
~Daily Kos
SWM, I think this “paid troll” is LUNACY! I did not make that assertion. I am mocking it.