Calif. School Suspends 20 Who Saw Web Site

[TechBear_Seattle]

Welcome to America, where students can now be suspended from school for merely looking at a website.

COSTA MESA, Calif. - A middle school student faces expulsion for allegedly posting graphic threats against a classmate on the popular MySpace.com Web site, and 20 of his classmates were suspended for viewing the posting, school officials said. (Emphasis added.)

Police are investigating the boy's comments about his classmate at TeWinkle Middle School as a possible hate crime, and the district is trying to expel him.

According to three parents of the suspended students, the invitation to join the boy's MySpace group gave no indication of the alleged threat. They said the MySpace social group name's was "I hate (girl's name)" and included an expletive and an anti-Semitic reference.

A later message to group members directed them to a nondescript folder, which included a posting that allegedly asked: "Who here in the (group name) wants to take a shotgun and blast her in the head over a thousand times?"

Because the creator of a posting can change its content at any time, it's unclear how much the students saw.

The article continues at http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/myspace_suspensions

Mind you, I have little sympathy for the person who put up the website. But to suspend everyone who was a member of the group? I know how easy it is to get suckered in to those things.

[BOSSHOG]

1. If rove had his way

all of us on DU would be hauled off to concentration camps and branded. Religious zealots would cheer as they wave their flags and thank each other for being so patriotic for upholding the constitution.

[sendero]

2. Guilt by association..

... it's the New American Way.

[ContraBass Black]

3. Did they know that it would be in there?

[Tanuki]

4. shotgun reference

obviously Cheney is a corrupting influence on today's kids

[Trillo]

5. Be afraid of your friends, "they" will hurt you.

and 20 of his classmates were suspended for viewing the posting, school officials said.

Yeah, educators are working hard at destroying community. The problems seems hierarchical, since the educators with power to suspend don't seem to be classroom instructors, but there's still that pesky association issue.

[hang a left]

6. They must have viewed it from school.

You have to sign an internet form at the beginning of every school year that states you won't access certain sites on school property.

[teach1st]

7. From the article

Metz said the students' suspensions in mid-Febuary were appropriate because the incident involved student safety. Some parents however questioned whether the school overstepped its bounds by disciplining students for actions that occurred on personal computers, at home and after school hours.

[mark11727]

8. "...on personal computers, at home and after school hours...."

Yup, I'd say the school overstepped big time.

And I can't stand MySpace --- my kid's on it, and I don't like the potential for sharing TOO MUCH PERSONAL INFORMATION over the web with STRANGERS.

On topic --- the kid with the web page needs counseling, pronto. Nobody with that much pent-up rage should be loose without some kind of checking on.

[hang a left]

9. Sorry didn't click on the link.

I would be at the district office so fast, ranting and raising cain, and threatening to sue.

How did they know which kids accessed the webpage? Maybe I should read the article, huh?

[hang a left]

10. The suspensions weren't for viewing the webpage but

for joining the group. Although the article is vague, it does seem like there was a group hate thing going on. Maybe it was actually appropriate. How would you feel if you were the parents of the victim?

[TechBear_Seattle]

13. I like your avatar

Reminds me of the Benjamin Franklklin quote I had been using for my sig: "If you make yourself a sheep, the wolves will eat you."

[ornotna]

14. I like your avatar

:P

[TechBear_Seattle]

16. It pretty well sums up my reaction to reading DU at times n/t

[WhiteTara]

15. how would you feel if you were the victim?

I hope she gets some therapy. I would want to move.

[sybylla]

11. This kind of thinking is the product of running schools like prisons

Anyone acts up, the whole cell block gets punished. No need for nuance or investigation.

[dsc]

12. If they saw the threat and didn't report it

then they deserve the suspensions. I don't know enough about MySpace to know if they had to see the threat if they were a member of the group.

[xxqqqzme]

17. the water in Costa Mesa must have some

hate flavor added. What w/ the racist mayor - Costa Mesa is gonna get a bad national reputation.