Student Expelled For Swearing On The Internet

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Swearing on Twitter can get you expelled from school these days? Sure it was a school issued laptop but he was at home at the time. :(

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.
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Apparently freedom of speech and fear of prosecution are things students need to learn.
 
Can't they just check the timestamp on the twitter message where he was swearing and verify that this happened outside the school facilities?
 
I mean why couldn't they just give the kid detention or something?

A bit extreme in my opinion to hold back a childs education.
 
Skripka said:
There has got to be a TOS/EULA clause at play here.
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This would be completely fair.

"No swearing while using SCHOOL computer systems"

If he wants to swear, let him switch to his personal equipment.

This is good training for future discrimination between work equipment and personal equipment.

Though, I agree that expulsion seems overly harsh in this circumstance.
 
wiseoracle said:
I mean why couldn't they just give the kid detention or something?

A bit extreme in my opinion to hold back a childs education.
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This

Expulsion over this? High School. Where illegal immigrants have more rights and freedoms than you.
 
TheWeazmeister said:
At least he only got expelled. This one got jail time for his stupid comments on Twitter:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/mar/27/student-jailed-fabrice-muamba-tweets
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Difference is hate speech is illegal in most European countries and is a punishable offense. In the US, hate speech is protected by the First Amendment.

Regardless, profanity is not hate speech. Regardless again, he did it on school property even though it was his Twitter account. Profanity is against policy in all schools. Expelling is probably harsh though. Perhaps he should have been suspended or put in detention.
 
Hamish Campbell said:
Oh yea?

Fabrice Muamba: Racist Twitter user jailed for 56 days

Not that I don't think what the moron in that story said was anything but disgusting, but Jail time for tweets? Expelled from his university? That's utterly insane.

As bad as America can be when it comes to freedom of speech, we're still light years ahead of the rest of the world. Especially the UK.
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Already a thread on this in soapbox

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1682611

And racist comments are illegal in most of that area, so it was known and the person violated the law when posting said comments.

Being expelled is too extreme though, education *should* be one of the most important things for our youth.
 
Why even use the fucking service if this is what happens? Throw this shit out the window and forget about it.
 
It really makes no sense why a school would even consider something like this. I guess I come from big business where every decision is scrutinized, and educators are usually not so bright... But at no point would I ever think this would "look good."

It screams "gonna get sued" or "this is going to end up on CNN/CBS/NBC/ABC nightly news." And on top of that, even if punishment was justified by it being in school, how on earth could you expel the kid over it?
 
Xae said:
Already a thread on this in soapbox

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1682611

And racist comments are illegal in most of that area, so it was known and the person violated the law when posting said comments.

Being expelled is too extreme though, education *should* be one of the most important things for our youth.
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Cool, but I can't post in that forum anymore because they found out I hate freedom and America and apple pie.
 
The problem is with the school issue laptop.
The school is liable for the use of its equipment.

Say, for example, you were driving a company car while running your own personal errands... if you got into an accident the company could still have some liability
 
dont see the problem here... brat was using school equipment. it'll be different if he was using his own laptop...
 
I wonder if this was his first charge, or was he warned multiple times? If he was, then he was dumb.

I'd be really wary if they were assigned equipment from school. No recreational web surfing, no social networking, only school related papers and such. I may even opt them out of having a school assigned computer.
 
Just give him detention or suspend him for a week or something, but expulsion? We have enough kids dropping out of high school, we don't need to force them out.
 
wiseoracle said:
Apparently freedom of speech and fear of prosecution are things students need to learn.
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Minor students have no rights if their parents sign them away. Didn't you know this? This has been the case since locker searches for drugs back in the 80s. (I know my locker was in one batch that was searched 12 times during my sophomore year in high school.) Even adult students in public schools typically have to sign away their rights to such things in order to attend. I did for my senior year, after I turned 18. (I failed kindergarten for "lacking in social skills" because of some incompetent teacher, so I was late in everything else in that school system.) Aurora Public Schools in Colorado wouldn't let me attend my senior year unless I signed the waiver. This was back in 1990.
 
BettiePage said:
dont see the problem here... brat was using school equipment. it'll be different if he was using his own laptop...
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You don't see the problem??? A child loses the chance to get educated properly over a minor offense. Isn't education of the youth a fucking inalienable right? Thanks to freedom of speech I can say this without flinching. "Fuck off."
 
So they expel kids for swearing in the hallways too?

:rolleyes:

This country is so full of stupid...
 
So, is this another case of "jump up and down while screaming without knowing the full story" like I see a lot on the internet?

Heres what I do know, just from reading the original post here...no link clicking...

1) Child uses a laptop provided by the school...
2) Child uses said laptop to log into his "personal" Twitter account...
3) While logged into said personal Twitter account, child makes a post using a curse word/words...
4) Child is expelled from the school in which previously gave him a laptop for using t to curse on his personal Twitter account....

Have I missed something? I dont see much difference in this than back when I was in school and the trouble we could get into for defacing a textbook...except the times are a bit tougher and I would bet a laptop costs more than a standard Scrips textbook.

Was there a written agreement as to what the laptop was to be used for? Was there a "moral clause" as well, outlining what disciplinary action would be taken for any infractions?

Bottom line, a child has no "freedom of speech" guarantee...because a child has no real rights while they are in school...and some of the rights they do have outside of school can be impacted by what they choose to do...just like this "kid".

If they are in school to "learn", then they probably need to learn what they can and cant do with school property...even if they are allowed to take it home...
 
I like how almost no one read the article.

He didn't post the tweet in question on school equipment, not even during school hours.
 
Brak710 said:
I like how almost no one read the article.

He didn't post the tweet in question on school equipment, not even during school hours.
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I like how YOU either didn't read and are a hypocrite or you lack reading comprehension. First paragraph, last sentence "...he used a school-owned computer..".
 
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