Students To Be Punished For MySpace Postings
August 16, 2007
SHEPHERDSVILLE, Ky. -- When students in Bullitt County went back to class Thursday, a new school board policy was in place to protect them from cyber bullying.
Under the rule passed this summer, students can be suspended or expelled, in addition to any criminal proceedings they might face, for messages they post on MySpace.
Bullitt County School Board Attorney Eric Farris said the board will weigh each infraction on its own merits. He said the board will keep in mind the students’ right to free speech.
The Kentucky chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union is already monitoring the free speech issues that accompany the Bullitt County rules.
ACLU of Kentucky attorney William Sharp said there are several similar cases across the country that have made their way into federal court, and there will likely be similar situations debated at schools across the state.
"The government or school authority now is attempting to regulate speech that is occurring off-site or off-campus," Sharp said. "The analysis for the courts will be whether or not the school can reasonably forecast a disruption of school activities because of the speech."
Sharp said that, while educators must be mindful of threats from off-campus, they must be careful that the regulation of true threats does not become overridden by the regulation of speech with which the school disagrees.
"Students have a first amendment right," Sharp said. "Other students are to be protected from threatening or otherwise harassing communications. But the schools have to be very careful how they define that as to not restrict more speech than is constitutionally permissible."
The Bullitt County School Board passed the new proposal after several incidents involving students threatening each other on popular social websites like MySpace.com.
“The threats had caused a lot of fear among the students that passed onto the parents and a lot of times the parents would come and remove the students,” Farris said.
There was so much disruption that in January several hundred students left Bullitt Central High School after threats appeared on MySpace.
In April, Bullitt County detectives arrested two high school freshmen for threatening a middle school student. One posted a picture of himself holding a handgun on MySpace. And last year, Bullitt East High School student Rachel Neblett committed suicide after her parents said she received repeated threats on MySpace.
Now, Farris said the school has a no tolerance policy for students making threats via the Internet on or off campus if it disrupts the learning process.
“It’s definitely a step in the right direction,” funeral director Jonathan Rideout said.
Rideout and Neblett’s father started a non-profit group called “Make a Difference for Kids” after Neblett’s death, dedicated to spreading an anti-bullying, anti-suicide message.
“Used to be that bullying was out in the open on the playground,” Rideout said. “Now it's all behind closed doors. You don't know who's bullying you, where they're at and it doesn't stop at school.”
