Posted on 03/18/2006 12:13:56 PM PST by Sarvana
On some weekends, Jenison Junior High School Principal Donna Bergeon does what many of her students do.
She goes online to check Xanga.
She looks for online messages about bullying, harassment, students who cut themselves or choke themselves for the high they get.
"I like to be pro-active," she said. "I'm not spying on them; I just care about them."
Jenison is among a growing number of local districts monitoring student communications on Xanga or similar Internet weblog sites, even though those messages are posted after school hours. Others include East Grand Rapids, Forest Hills, Zeeland and Wyoming.
At least in Jenison, where recent messages about "shooting up" a school led to suspensions, some students don't like it.
They've started an online petition, claiming the district is invading their privacy and violating their Constitutional rights. The petition drive started before last week's suspensions.
Jenison student Brittany Robrahn, 16, last year started the petition that requests administrators not snoop on personal Web sites. It amassed more than 300 signatures and Robrahn said she took it to school officials, who told her they don't check the sites.
"I knew they weren't telling the truth," she said Thursday.
Robrahn says mundane messages can be taken out of context. The junior posted lyrics from one of her favorite songs last year on her former Xanga site, and was hustled into a counselor's office after someone thought she might be contemplating suicide.
"It's like they're going into your private life, and if you're doing it at home, they should stay out," Robrahn said. "You put harmless things on it about your day or put something that is a joke and people don't get it. I put up lyrics that I thought were cool and, all of a sudden, 'I'm thinking about killing myself.'"
School officials and police, however, are quick to point out: Nothing on the Internet is private.
The principal can see it. So can parents. And predators love it. Safety is the ultimate issue, say advocates for patrolling the sites.
Xanga and similar Web sites are posing new challenges for school officials who say they are trying to protect students -- not only from themselves and other students, but from online predators.
"When I first heard about Xanga, I knew it could be a problem for our kids," Bergeon said. "I wrote notes when I was in junior high. Our kids wrote instant messages (online). This is just the next stage."
A series of Xanga messages, discovered last week by parents, led to the suspension of three Jenison eighth-graders. They had posted messages about "shooting up" their school, although they did not take any action to follow through.
The students, who had faced possible expulsion, instead were withdrawn from the district by the parents, who now must find new schools for them, Jenison administrators said today. The students still could face criminal charges.
In Wayland, photographs of teens having sex were posted online and linked from a Xanga site, leading to criminal charges against a Wayland Union High School student.
In East Grand Rapids, 20 students were suspended from extra-curricular activities last month after photos of them drinking were posted on Xanga.
Some schools, such as Grandville and West Ottawa, said they don't monitor weblogs, although, like others, they block access to them from school computers.
"As much as we may want to address it, it's frankly outside the bounds of our jurisdiction," said Grandville Superintendent Ron Caniff.
Zeeland administrators, however, say there is a connection between weblogs and school.
"We've seen mounting problems arise because students read Xanga at night and they come to school the next day to sort out their problems," Zeeland spokesman Jim Camenga said.
Kentwood police Officer Jerry McCarthy, a local Internet crime expert who has a daughter at Jenison Junior High School, has met with parents and teachers to discuss Internet safety.
"It's not East Grand Rapids' problem; it's not Jenison's problem," he said. "It's happening all over the United States."
Thanks to weblogs, predators no longer have to ask children for names, birth dates or other identification. Many of these potential targets are posting it on their weblogs, often with photographs, McCarthy said.
At Forest Hills, instructional technology consultant Cathy Williams reviews sites once or twice a month.
She occasionally meets with groups of parents to discuss Internet safety, and shows them Xanga sites of Forest Hills students, she said.
She has told her daughter, a student in the district, to "tell your friends and have them tell their friends, that I'm talking to parents, and if they don't want their parents to see something, don't put it on there."
Williams encourages parents to get check out Xanga and post their comments: "I am reading this."
What retard writes these headlines? These blogs are posted out there for the whole world to read--how is it "snooping" to read it?
The school is suffering from a liberal curriculum. The kids think they have a constitutional right to privacy, let alone a right to privacy that extends to protecting their publicly posted communications.
You said -- "What retard writes these headlines?"
They are simply "framing" the issue -- as it's being "discussed" from the two sides. It's not an unreasonable titling of the issue at hand. From what I read, one side says, "It's snooping" -- while the other side says, "It's a safety issue."
I don't see why you're complaining about the titling of the article.
When I saw the title (alone), I just about knew what the whole article was about. And that's "good titling" -- from my perspective.
Regards,
Star Traveler
So long as someone else is footing the bill and they live under that roof they have none of the rights that come with adulthood. IF they want those rights fine! Let them move out and be TOTALLY on their own for everything and take what comes like an adult.
"The kids think they have a constitutional right to privacy, let alone a right to privacy that extends to protecting their publicly posted communications."
Perhaps the school should spend a little more time on civics and less on sex ed, and the crap like the hippie teacher spewed.
It's public but if someone at my job on my off time comes here just to see what I'm posting and follows me from thread to thread that's snooping IMO.
That's why God invented pseudonyms.
You're right. I should have said, "What retard calls it 'snooping'?" Is reading a billboard "snooping"? How about skywriting? Bulletin boards? Newspaper ads? Same goes for blogs. Want to keep your inmost thoughts a secret? Buy a diary with a lock.
The same ones who gripe about the the police -- Jay Leno, on air -- reading their 'private' "Personals" ads in the newspaper.
Exactly. If you want something to be private, do not post it on the Internet. Are the students unaware of this?
In a private school, since parents pay the bills, they can and will get a better say in school policies.
That said, its pretty unusual for a private school teacher or administrator to really go throught a students blog.
I would also add, I think students in private schools probably have the common sense god gave a screwdriver to realize that if they post something in public, anyone in the public can read it.
Its not a privacy issue.
They get high by cutting themselves? And their parents don't notice? When I was a kid we just took dope, and our parents noticed.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.