Fuck the school system
What the fuck is happening to free speech? Have schools gone mad? I just got done reading an article on Wired.com about Myspace being “a parents worst nightmare” because apparently children as young as 14 are getting molested by much older men. While this is completely sick and wrong it’s not the problem with Myspace. Why can’t parents ever point the finger at themselves? If your 14 year old daughter wears a pound of makeup and creates an online profile where she claims to be 19 then she has much deeper problems that need to be dealt with.
It’s not the fault of Myspace, the internet, or any specific location. These types of things can happen on a playground, park, school zone, and pretty much anywhere where kids hangout. The saddest thing in all of this is that many of the schools have began reprimanding students for negative comments. This is what I really have a problem with.
How can a school “control” what a student reads/writes in their free time? From reading the article it appears that some students have been using this service in school and I will agree that it should be banned on school computers as it has no educational value but to punish students for posting negative comments about faculty on their personal albeit web accessible profiles is just absurd.
I almost wish I had a podcast instead of a blog so you can really understand how angry I am at this whole situation. I really can’t believe that some school districts are getting away with this and am glad that at least one of the students who created a fake profile that was made to appear like it belonged to his principal is suing the school.
I’m not yet a parent but if my son or daughter were penalized in any way even just a minor slap on the wrist I would be furious. I don’t care if my child wrote something to the effect of “fuck the high school” or “Mr. Smith sucks dick!” they have no right to butt in with my parenting. I would be so angry that I would actually look into putting my child into another school in another district and encourage others to do the same.
This is becoming a police fucking state! We have people that teach the 1st amendment in school but violate it’s very nature because of their thin skin. Fuck the system.
One Response to “Fuck the school system”
Oh sweetheart - this has been going on since the invasion of high-school-friendly websites. It’s not just a MySp thing - many schools have blocked sites like xanga.com, livejournal.com, blogger.com, etc. and have done so only after reprimanding kids for using them - even if they were using them mainly from their own homes. I know of some schools that have blocked neopets.com - which actually teaches kids how to do many things in an entertaining environment like run a retail store, work out math and logic problems, and develop hand-eye coordination for the youngest folks, all while they’re learning without even knowing it.
Since the invention of the internet, privacy has been an issue. That’s why you’ll go to some blogs and there will be ne’er a photo to be seen, and no one will post their real names. There are people who have been fired from their jobs because of their blogs - one guy even got fired from a beer company he worked for because he posted a picture of him and his friends at a party - and he was drinking from the competition’s bottle.
You’re right to be angry. But until there are laws set in place about internet privacy and policies, then no one can really complain much. Or enough, in fact.
And you’re right - when a 14 year old goes off pretending to be a 19 year old bisexual - it’s the parents who should’ve noticed the problem.
Of course, this is what you get when both parents are employed and they leave the internet to babysit for them. This was the same story with the invention of Atari and so on… but that’s for another rant.
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