With easy access to Facebook, especially with smartphone apps, sometimes students become oblivious to the consequences that can result from the click of a button. Just how much can a remark affect their lives?
On February 17, a 13 year old girl in Atlanta got suspended for calling her teacher a “pedophile” on Facebook. Alejandra Sosa was called down to the principal’s office and ordered to sign on to her account and delete the comment. But Sosa believes that this was a violation of her freedom of speech, and the case will be going to court.
“That kind of stuff happens all the time here, I always see comments about teachers on Facebook and it’s scary to think that someone could get suspended for that,” freshmen Antonella Danielas said.
Students are used to the “Facebook fights” that break out, but if an event like Sosa’s were to occur at Palmetto, they wonder how it would be handled.
“What concerns me more than anything is that people use social networking as a way to say stuff about people that they probably wouldn’t say to their face,” principal Howard Weiner said. “If a similar situation were to happen at our school, I would consult with the school board attorneys to make sure that if I were to implement any punishment, it would be within my legal rights.”
There has never been an event in which a Palmetto student got caught directing an insult towards a faculty member, but there have been many threats made on Facebook that Weiner has had to deal with. The consequences are not as dire, though, and they usually end with a parent conference.
“Last year someone left a video on my friend’s wall making fun of her, so some other friends and I jumped in to defend her, but it went a little overboard,” an anonymous Palmetto student said. “Me and the other girls got called down to Bales and our parents had to come in, but they gave us a warning and that’s it.”
Weiner believed that punishment is not the solution to this, but that students need to be taught the difference between right and wrong to begin with.
“Looking back at it now I’ve realized that the way we all handled the situation was petty, mean and immature. I stand by what I said, I just don’t think we approached it correctly,” the anonymous Palmetto student said.
Some students are opposed to the idea of getting in trouble for something they say online, stating that it violates their privacy. But legal experts working on Sosa’s case claim that courts view comments posted online to be published, so they are open to anyone who wants to view them.
“Regardless of what we say, teachers shouldn’t be looking into our personal lives; I didn’t know Facebook and school were intertwined,” sophomore Mark Hanna said.
The first amendment right of freedom of speech is the main factor behind this issue, and students are anxious to see the outcome of Sosa’s case.
As Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. said in the Schenck v. United States case, “You have the right of freedom of speech, but you cannot falsely shout fire in a crowded theater.”
