Freedom of Facebook

There was a recent incident at my sister’s school when a middle school boy made inappropriate comments about a teacher on Facebook. The school found out and suspended him.

Rightly so? Perhaps. The comments weren’t appropriate to direct at anyone, much less a teacher — even a hated one. But the posts, as far as I know, weren’t made at school, or made to a school official, or made where a school official could see. They were made on Facebook.

That doesn’t make what the boy said any less inappropriate, but it does make the school’s jurisdiction over the case a bit sketchier. It isn’t the first time I’ve known people who were expelled or suspended from school for remarks made about teachers on the Internet. It’s not even the first time it’s happened at that school.

I don’t know how the school found out about what the boy did — maybe a friend saw and told a parent, who told a teacher. Maybe there were rumors about it floating around school, the kid had an open profile and an administrator was able to log on and see it. But is what’s said on Facebook — or any other social network — a matter for the school to deal with?

In my opinion, no. Unless it’s a matter of privacy invasion or a safety issue, the school has no right to get involved in something that occurs away from school grounds.

The disparaging remarks weren’t something the kid should have said, and he was stupid to post them on Facebook and expect not to be found out. Nevertheless, since his comments were not threatening physical harm to the teacher, the school had no business punishing him for them. Students have said plenty about their teachers where said teachers can’t hear; now they just have the medium of the Internet in which to do so, in addition to all the other methods of communication.

Why should the school be able to punish students for things they do away from school? It doesn’t really affect the school, and it’s not done on school property.

There’s no question that the boy was stupid — you don’t make comments about your teachers on the Internet unless you’re sure no one will see and turn you in (but the “middle school kids shouldn’t have Facebook” argument is another matter).

And he really shouldn’t have said anything about his teacher at all. However, freedom of speech means he can say what he wants about people when he wants. His parents have the right to punish him if they choose. He is a minor, and he lives in their house and uses a computer they bought. But the school is not his guardian, and as much as schools act in loco parentis, it’s not their job to do so when the kids aren’t in school.

The schools need to back off student actions on the Internet. It’s not their place to punish actions that happen off school grounds.


E-mail: hanns@indiana.edu