HS Student Expelled for Swearing on Twitter

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xBiffx

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Aug 22, 2011
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http://news.yahoo.com/wtf-high-school-senior-expelled-swearing-twitter-163010245.html

Student will be receiving a nice payout in the future for having his 1st amendment rights violated. Even if this was done on a school computer it doesn't warrant being expelled. I am also concerned this might be an invasion of privacy issue. I am sure the school has a right to block certain sites but to read/track what you are typing or posting seems like a problem.

The principal even admitted that he could have tweeted from home and the school computer might have caught it when he logged in the next day at school.

The principal at Garrett High School claims their system tracks all the tweets on Twitter when a student logs in, meaning even if he did tweet it from home their system could have recognized it when he logged in again at school.

Big brother is watching you.
 

cybrsage

Lifer
Nov 17, 2011
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The courts have already ruled that students do not have the right to free speech.

EDIT:
he used a school-owned computer to post the tweet.
That is from the link in the previous post. He used school resources to break school rules. This is no different than going to porn sites on your work laptop while at home.
 

Pens1566

Lifer
Oct 11, 2005
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If it's for the after hours tweets and not some violation of acceptable use policy for accessing twitter while at school, the district is in trouble. I'm guessing they f'd themselves on this one.

Disturbing trend with schools being allowed to punish for behavior outside the school/school day. If it doesn't happen at school or a school event, keep out of it.
 

cubby1223

Lifer
May 24, 2004
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If it's for the after hours tweets and not some violation of acceptable use policy for accessing twitter while at school, the district is in trouble. I'm guessing they f'd themselves on this one.

Disturbing trend with schools being allowed to punish for behavior outside the school/school day. If it doesn't happen at school or a school event, keep out of it.

Schools have always been able to punish for behavior outside the school/school day. Didn't happen often at the schools I went to, but it did. No one saw it as a violation of rights, people viewed it as the right thing to do.
 

OutHouse

Lifer
Jun 5, 2000
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The courts have already ruled that students do not have the right to free speech.

EDIT: That is from the link in the previous post. He used school resources to break school rules. This is no different than going to porn sites on your work laptop while at home.




did you not read this too?

1969 case, Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, ruled that students in public schools have a constitutional right to free speech
 
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cubby1223

Lifer
May 24, 2004
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I, for one, do not believe schools should be providing students with free laptops. That would clear up that one argument of him using school resources to tweet. Why should I as a taxpayer be funding his f-bomb tweets?


As for the rest of this article - no one gets expelled for saying fuck. I guarantee that student was expelled for a great many things over a long period of time, this tweet was just the straw that broke the camel's back.
 

Pens1566

Lifer
Oct 11, 2005
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Schools have always been able to punish for behavior outside the school/school day. Didn't happen often at the schools I went to, but it did. No one saw it as a violation of rights, people viewed it as the right thing to do.

If it's between the time they leave school and get home, on the bus home for example, then yes. If it's something that threatens a staff member, yes. If it falls outside those bounds and it doesn't impact the school in anyway, then it should be hands off.
 

xBiffx

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Aug 22, 2011
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As for the rest of this article - no one gets expelled for saying fuck. I guarantee that student was expelled for a great many things over a long period of time, this tweet was just the straw that broke the camel's back.

I had also considered this but of course we don't get much background from the story.
 
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