Reply
Fri 30 Mar, 2007 07:42 am
This pissed me off to no end. I can't believe I forgot to post this!
Who the hell do they think they are? Banning myspace at school, yeah I see that. At school they have a responsibility to make sure the students are safe. But banning and threatening to not enroll students with myspace pages....??? Taking this into peoples homes....I could just spit nails.
Quote:The school announced a policy that flatly refuses to enroll students with MySpace or similar websites. Students were told on March 20 to delete their MySpace accounts, if they want to continue to be students at St. Hugo's.
And we wonder why people are so against religion.
I also get that this is a private school and blah blah blah blah but still....doesn't this seem like...oh i don't know, a violation of our rights?
Banned MySpace
I think it is going a bit too far. Setting policy for what can be viewed over school computers is fine, but telling a student they cannot have a site on myspace seems to be stepping into a parent's realm of responsibility. Kinda like what many think the public school system does on a regular basis.
Gay.
The kids have a way around that ban though. They just have to open accounts under a fake name, possibly under a different zip code, and the school won't find them.
Sure, Slappy, but it reminds me of school days in the far south, circa 1960. I didn't actually have to pray in class. It was okay to quietly bow my head and pretend.
next they'll say throw your tv's away in case you forget to do your homework!
That seems like crossing the line to me, re parent rights to monitor child's actions/media input. Wonder if it could be legally questionable...
I don't see any legal rights issues - as stated, it's a private school and they can create rules for themselves. If parents disagree with the rule they can send their children to another school.
The rule is stupid and useless but I don't see any (legal) reason they can't make/enforce it.
I should also point out that this school mentioned in the article is grades K-8. The Terms of Service for MySpace limit use to those ages 14 and over. Any of this school's students using MySpace would be in violation of MySpace's TOS.
Re: Right to Ban MySpace?
Bella Dea wrote:This pissed me off to no end. I can't believe I forgot to post this!
Who the hell do they think they are? Banning myspace at school, yeah I see that. At school they have a responsibility to make sure the students are safe. But banning and threatening to not enroll students with myspace pages....??? Taking this into peoples homes....I could just spit nails.
Quote:The school announced a policy that flatly refuses to enroll students with MySpace or similar websites. Students were told on March 20 to delete their MySpace accounts, if they want to continue to be students at St. Hugo's.
I don't see how school administrators have the right to know what is in someones Laptop.
In this case, we should be able to open every Priests, Clergyman or Rabbis' computer.
And we wonder why people are so against religion.
I also get that this is a private school and blah blah blah blah but still....doesn't this seem like...oh i don't know, a violation of our rights?
Banned MySpace
Split emontions.
Part of me is happy to see any rent being put in Myspace, as I think it is quite lame.
However that ethical side of me is driven away from my irrational hate for the social networking site and must conclude that this is a total private intrusion.
I would prefer that the school meet with parents, explain the very real objections and dangers inherent in My Space, and instruct the parents how to block this site on the kids' computers. Also I would instruct the parents to check on their kids internet activity on a frequent basis and also the kids should be appropriately instructed on the dangers that exist for them via the internet.
But, it is probably simpler and makes more of a statement to tell the kids they can't attend this school and use My Space too. It is not that much different than telling the kids that smoking, drinking alcohol, using other illegal drugs or whatever is not acceptable on or off campus. A private school may or may not be ding batty with these kinds of policies, but it is their prerogative.
Personally, I don't think any parent should be allowing any young kid to have a My Space account.
I agree with Deist or is it Diest, anyway, I agree it is a private intrusion.
Parents need to monitor, no doubt about it, and meetings about this seem like a generally good thing.
I can't really talk about myspace since I don't think I've clicked on it, or maybe once about some trendy clothes wearer in LA - but in concept I take it as a free platform. A school saying a child cannot be a member out of school hours? Whoa. I'm as chary as anyone about the negative potential, but still.. big border crossing here.
I don't care if the school is private. The family home is private.
ossobuco wrote:I agree with Deist or is it Diest, anyway, I agree it is a private intrusion.
Parents need to monitor, no doubt about it, and meetings about this seem like a generally good thing.
I can't really talk about myspace since I don't think I've clicked on it, or maybe once about some trendy clothes wearer in LA - but in concept I take it as a free platform. A school saying a child cannot be a member out of school hours? Whoa. I'm as chary as anyone about the negative potential, but still.. big border crossing here.
I don't care if the school is private. The family home is private.
Whether or not the school is smart or practical or ill advised to forbid My Space accounts, it is within the school's authority to set the rules for its clientele however. The kids can have a lot of fun on My Space, but it is not monitored or regulated in any way so far as I can tell so the kids can also be exposed to the most vile and objectionable kinds of material as well as encounter the on line predators who haunt the site.
If the kids have an account, they can access it through the school computers too.
The school also would likely not be accepting of kids who were engaged in racist organizations or Satanism or illegal activities on their own time either. If they can require a certain level of conduct from their clientele in other areas, I don't think it is unthinkable that they would ban participation in a site popular with but totally unsuitable for young kids.
I still think appealing to the good sense of the parents rather than making the site more interesting via a ban is the way to go though.
These latest revelations at Virginia Tech should echo the unstable atmospheres in some of these schools because prayer was removed. Was it replaced with myspace?
"Buy the premise, buy the package." It IS a prIvate school, and no one is forced to go there. If the parents want, they can band together and talk to the school administration.
BTW, personally, I think that the rule is idiotic. Saying that, a private school has the right to set rules for its students.
Reminds me when my kids preschool would not allow any Batman items in the school. (Boy, THAT dates me!)
I applaud this school for taking a stand- an unpopular and potentially business-hurting stand- but a stand, none-the-less- which is something that is happening less and less in our society.
I have a fourteen year old daughter who is dying to have a myspace account. I've just said, flat out "No". Her friends are trying to get her to have a web page- again, I've said, "No". The potential dangers of internet "relationships" far outweigh the benefits for kids that age.
Because, honestly what does myspace contribute in the lives of these kids? I can maybe see if a child is disabled or sick and/or bedridden and not able to socialize normally, but other than that, I can't find one productive thing about it- except the diversity of meeting kids from all over the world, and they can get a pen pal if that's what they're interested in.
I think it's far better for our children to be learning how to socialize honestly, face to face, make friends who they know they can trust to be who they say they are and with whom they can interact on a day to day basis, so that they can develop honest interpersonal and relationship skills- not to mention spending their free time reading, outside getting exercise, doing volunteer work, taking music lessons, etc., etc.,
Why do they need just one more reason to sit in front of a screen?
It's also akin to what some people on this forum were talking about in terms of allowing negative and harmful influences to proliferate in our society by supporting programs, artists, and production companies who promote indecency, language we'd prefer our children not to use, and a general lowering of standards of behavior.
Honestly, would the world (and our children) be any worse off without myspace?
Or put another way, would they be better off without it?
This school is simply saying, "We don't agree with this, and not only will we not promote it, we will not support it, by tacitly agreeing to peripheral participation in it, which we feel may be harmful to our students."
They're probably fighting a losing battle, but I would see this school as being supportive of my own efforts to help make the world a safer place for my children.
*Just as an aside, my son's eighth grade science teacher, a colleague of mine in the school system I last taught in in the US, the middle school football coach and boyscout leader- someone I knew personally, and I thought well, and who I thought was a lovely, upstanding man- had a myspace account through which he approached young boys soliciting sexual relationships. He was caught (by a boy who told his father about it) and arrested last year.
You NEVER know....
The prevalence of predators stalking the internet is a persistent and prevalent problem that no parent and no school should be ignorant of or ignore. My Space is notorious for that. And have you ever looked in on some of the role playing games? It would make your skin crawl. If more parents were as conscious of the very real dangers as Aiden, the truly evil creeps prowling the web would have a lot fewer targets.
There is no way for the school to enforce whatever the kids do on their computer after school, but at least with the rule in place the kids will be less likely to be discussing or actively promoting My Space during school hours. And it will be in their head that this is something that is not universally acceptable.
roger wrote:Sure, Slappy, but it reminds me of school days in the far south, circa 1960. I didn't actually have to pray in class. It was okay to quietly bow my head and pretend.
Roger Roger what am I going to do with you? Jesus knew you weren't praying even if the teachers didn't. Now as if I don't have enough to worry about I have to add your immortsl soul to the list. Repent would ya? I don't need this pressure.
Phoenix32890 wrote:"Buy the premise, buy the package." It IS a prIvate school, and no one is forced to go there. If the parents want, they can band together and talk to the school administration.
BTW, personally, I think that the rule is idiotic. Saying that, a private school has the right to set rules for its students.
Reminds me when my kids preschool would not allow any Batman items in the school. (Boy, THAT dates me!)
I remember how at Holy Cross they wouldn't allow me to being in acid or pot. And I PAID to attend that school.... archaic....
aidan wrote:
I have a fourteen year old daughter who is dying to have a myspace account. I've just said, flat out "No". Her friends are trying to get her to have a web page- again, I've said, "No". The potential dangers of internet "relationships" far outweigh the benefits for kids that age.
It's a way for them to connect with their friends. Don't you remember being in school all day with your best friend and then getting home and calling her to talk? I do. And I know I am not the only one.
Myspace isn't the problem. It's bad parenting that's the problem. And parents who don't teach their kids how to behave in this world we live in.
My niece (15) has a myspace account. She has been taught well and her's is set to private (meaning she has to approve people to be able to see it). Her mom and dad have her password to monitor it. She's a good kid and myspace hasn't made her any less of a good kid.
Yes, she could have a "secret" account but I doubt it. She could also be smoking dope behind the school before she heads home or saying she's going to a girlfriends house and then having sex in the back of her boyfriends car. There is a time when you have to trust that you raised your kids right and let them go a little.
But that's just me.
Stumble It!
Tweet This
Bookmark on Delicious
Share on Facebook
Share on MySpace