Record-Journal
09-06-2007, 12:38 AM
Online slurs can be ruled out of line
By Jeffery Kurz, Record-Journal staff
The free exchange that typifies the online world can have its pitfalls, as exemplified by a recent case in Burlington in which a teenager was punished for making a derogatory comment about school officials in an Internet blog.
A U.S. district judge last week ruled that the Region 10 school system was within its rights to punish the high school student, even though the offending remarks were made off school grounds.
The decision raises questions about First Amendment rights, particularly about how they apply to students. Lewis S. Mills High School student Avery Doninger was not suspended from school, but rather denied an extracurricular activity, running for re-election as class secretary, after she reportedly called school administrators “douchbags” (sic) in a blog about the cancellation of a band contest.
The judge’s ruling also highlights an increasing concern about young people who post to blogs or Myspace or Facebook pages without recognizing the potential consequences — actions that could come back to haunt them, say, when it’s time to apply for a job. Or, as in the Burlington case, run for school office.
The alacrity with which young people participate in such online opportunities — chatting, forums, blogs, MySpace pages — is often a mystery to their parents, who find it increasingly difficult to keep up.
It’s the generation gap of the Aughts, to name the current decade, with technology driving the wedge.
“I’m pretty hip, but they spend six hours a day doing it,” said Joseph Cipollini, a Southington High School teacher who coordinates the Project Discovery program. Cipollini is also adviser to the school newspaper and has dealt with free-speech issues.
Today’s technology also presents a paradoxical situation for schools, which are charged with preparing young people for the future. Students are not allowed to use cell phones in school, because they’re a distraction, and Web surfing is limited because of the need to protect against access to unsavory material. Yet the limits are off once the student has left school grounds.
Cipollini said he talks to students about behavior in the virtual world, advising the Golden Rule of doing unto others what you would have them do unto you.
But flippant, derogatory and hurtful comments are far from unfamiliar online. Young people may not recognize that such comments are also more permanent than they suppose, suggested Barbara Fraser, president of Meriden’s citywide Parent-Teacher Organization.
“It’s a big topic of discussion among parents,” said Fraser. “I can say that I’ve had a hard time keeping up with technology. The kids are so far ahead of us.”
A young person might think it clever to brag online about under-age drinking, for example, but “parents are realizing that this is out there and it’s not going away,” she said.
Part of what’s going on is revealed by terminology. The online world is the virtual world, not the real world.
“A lot of times when people are rude online, they want to be witty” and are not necessarily thinking about repercussions, observed Gina-Marie Rosario, a 17-year-old senior at Meriden’s Platt High School who also attends the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts.
“I took a media ethics class spring semester, even as journalism majors we were shocked that what we said online could be used against us, or used in news stories,” said Sarah Kopman-Fried, a junior at the University of Connecticut. Kopman-Fried worked as an intern for the Record-Journal this summer.
“When you’re online, you feel protected because it’s the Internet and not real life, and we see this immense divide between the real world and what’s online,” she said.
“We really, as students, think we have a certain amount of privacy when we go on the Internet and we’re shocked to find that we don’t,” she said.
This perception, or misperception, is part of what Richard F. Hanley calls “the chaos that accompanies all transitory periods.”
“This is the old struggle to keep out what is new as the new tries to assert itself,” said Hanley, assistant professor of journalism and graduate director of journalism and interactive communications at Quinnipiac University.
“It’s not an easy transition for a lot of people,” he said.
One day, suggested Hanley, online transgressions might not be regarded as so consequential by a generation with “a different view of the residue that’s left behind,” much as the Baby Boom generation has a different attitude about behavior that scared their parents witless.
In the meantime, while students have the right to criticism, they also need to be accountable for it, said Hanley.
In the Burlington case, the court ruled that while the comment was not made on school grounds it was about school issues and was available for other students to read.
One thing is clear about comments both in the virtual and real world — they can hurt.
Though it was the only one critical, a comment about Cipollini on the site RateMyTeachers.com was “very hurtful,” the teacher said.
“The good things didn’t make me feel as good as the bad thing made me feel bad,” he said.
jkurz@record-journal.com
(203) 317-2213
By Jeffery Kurz, Record-Journal staff
The free exchange that typifies the online world can have its pitfalls, as exemplified by a recent case in Burlington in which a teenager was punished for making a derogatory comment about school officials in an Internet blog.
A U.S. district judge last week ruled that the Region 10 school system was within its rights to punish the high school student, even though the offending remarks were made off school grounds.
The decision raises questions about First Amendment rights, particularly about how they apply to students. Lewis S. Mills High School student Avery Doninger was not suspended from school, but rather denied an extracurricular activity, running for re-election as class secretary, after she reportedly called school administrators “douchbags” (sic) in a blog about the cancellation of a band contest.
The judge’s ruling also highlights an increasing concern about young people who post to blogs or Myspace or Facebook pages without recognizing the potential consequences — actions that could come back to haunt them, say, when it’s time to apply for a job. Or, as in the Burlington case, run for school office.
The alacrity with which young people participate in such online opportunities — chatting, forums, blogs, MySpace pages — is often a mystery to their parents, who find it increasingly difficult to keep up.
It’s the generation gap of the Aughts, to name the current decade, with technology driving the wedge.
“I’m pretty hip, but they spend six hours a day doing it,” said Joseph Cipollini, a Southington High School teacher who coordinates the Project Discovery program. Cipollini is also adviser to the school newspaper and has dealt with free-speech issues.
Today’s technology also presents a paradoxical situation for schools, which are charged with preparing young people for the future. Students are not allowed to use cell phones in school, because they’re a distraction, and Web surfing is limited because of the need to protect against access to unsavory material. Yet the limits are off once the student has left school grounds.
Cipollini said he talks to students about behavior in the virtual world, advising the Golden Rule of doing unto others what you would have them do unto you.
But flippant, derogatory and hurtful comments are far from unfamiliar online. Young people may not recognize that such comments are also more permanent than they suppose, suggested Barbara Fraser, president of Meriden’s citywide Parent-Teacher Organization.
“It’s a big topic of discussion among parents,” said Fraser. “I can say that I’ve had a hard time keeping up with technology. The kids are so far ahead of us.”
A young person might think it clever to brag online about under-age drinking, for example, but “parents are realizing that this is out there and it’s not going away,” she said.
Part of what’s going on is revealed by terminology. The online world is the virtual world, not the real world.
“A lot of times when people are rude online, they want to be witty” and are not necessarily thinking about repercussions, observed Gina-Marie Rosario, a 17-year-old senior at Meriden’s Platt High School who also attends the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts.
“I took a media ethics class spring semester, even as journalism majors we were shocked that what we said online could be used against us, or used in news stories,” said Sarah Kopman-Fried, a junior at the University of Connecticut. Kopman-Fried worked as an intern for the Record-Journal this summer.
“When you’re online, you feel protected because it’s the Internet and not real life, and we see this immense divide between the real world and what’s online,” she said.
“We really, as students, think we have a certain amount of privacy when we go on the Internet and we’re shocked to find that we don’t,” she said.
This perception, or misperception, is part of what Richard F. Hanley calls “the chaos that accompanies all transitory periods.”
“This is the old struggle to keep out what is new as the new tries to assert itself,” said Hanley, assistant professor of journalism and graduate director of journalism and interactive communications at Quinnipiac University.
“It’s not an easy transition for a lot of people,” he said.
One day, suggested Hanley, online transgressions might not be regarded as so consequential by a generation with “a different view of the residue that’s left behind,” much as the Baby Boom generation has a different attitude about behavior that scared their parents witless.
In the meantime, while students have the right to criticism, they also need to be accountable for it, said Hanley.
In the Burlington case, the court ruled that while the comment was not made on school grounds it was about school issues and was available for other students to read.
One thing is clear about comments both in the virtual and real world — they can hurt.
Though it was the only one critical, a comment about Cipollini on the site RateMyTeachers.com was “very hurtful,” the teacher said.
“The good things didn’t make me feel as good as the bad thing made me feel bad,” he said.
jkurz@record-journal.com
(203) 317-2213