Student suspended for Facebook page

As everyone knows, social media is becoming more and more dominant in the lives of students. Such social networks as Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter are the center of many students social lives. They find out a great deal of their gossip there, while discussing gossip of their own on them. In Miami, there is a student who is suing her principal for spending her for creating a Facebook page against her teacher. School officials suspended her for three days for "cyberbullying" her teacher. The student, Katherine Evans, is suing the principal for her suspension to be removed off of her disciplinary record, a "nominal fee" for her First Amendment rights being violated, and all of her legal fees. The principal attempted to get the judge to dismiss the case but the judge decided the "protection of First Amendment rights to online writings of a nonthreatening manner" was significant enough to let the case go on. To read the entire article, go to: http://www.educationnews.org/educationnewstoday/53607.html.

My thoughts and opinions on this as a student are that I can think of plenty of times where I have had teachers that I just don't like. I have also seen pages created by my fellow students on Facebook against teachers (none were threatening). This was nothing new for me to see when I read this article. What was surprising to me in the article was that the girl was suspended for it. As a student, I think this is crazy. I can think of so many pages against my teachers and principal that were created on Facebook. I can't imagine my fellow classmates being punished by the school for them though.

Now, as a future teacher, I will give my personal thoughts. I am not expecting every student to like me or my class. I know that I will have students that I will butt heads with and that they may not like. As much as I wish we all got along and that they all liked me, that is not reality. Being an early childhood education teacher, I doubt I will ever face this situation. Speaking just a general teacher though, I still do not see reasoning for suspending the student for creating the Facebook page. The first thing that came to mind as I read this article was the saying, "sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." Whether it is verbally, passed on a note in class, or written on a Facebook page, I know that students will saying negative things about me. In my opinion, as long as the things be said or written about me are not threatening, then I say take it as a grain of salt. I am a professional that should expect both positive and negative things to be said about me. How much one lets it get to them is when it becomes an issue.

GENTILE, CARMEN. "EducationNews.org - Student Suspended for Facebook Page Can Sue." EducationNews.org . N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Mar. 2010. .