When vice principal Victoria Ragan told students at the beginning of the year that what they say and do on the internet, specifically Facebook could land them in trouble, many students were outraged.
“What I do in the privacy of my own home, is my business and not the MLK administration. I could see if I was on a school computer bullying students, but since I’m not and not many people are, MLK should have no say in what I do,” said junior Shamika Higgins.
Since Mrs. Ragan’s arrival in 2006, she has seen the number of incidents of Facebook bullying cases rise to two a semester.
“Last year we had some students being picked on [on] Facebook. It even got to the point where the parents were arguing with the students. The parents reported to Facebook what was going on and from there Facebook took the student account down. Basically the same expectation in school applies to society. The golden rule, treat people the way you want to be treated, said Mrs. Ragan.
Because of incidents of cyber bullying happening, MLK established Facebook rules to stop students from exploiting each other. Not only are there Facebook rules, but also some basic internet rules.
“Some students do some illegal activities on the internet (besides hacking onto Facebook) while at school and we traced them down. We had students sending dirty stuff on the internet and we were able to get our IT tech person to track down what computer it came from, what room it was in, and since they did it on school time the student was suspended,” said Ms. Ragan.
All students know that are subject to school rules when on a school computer but what many fail to realize is that their actions are subject to school rules even after they leave the campus for the day.
“Once (students) step foot on school grounds in the morning, till they step foot on their front porch, were responsible for them,” said Mrs. Ragan.
If students are accessing Facebook at school on their Blackberry’s, Itouch, or any other device with internet access they are subject to be suspended if the school finds them cyber bullying. Even across the street at Watkins Park, or the downtown library students are subject to be punished. Furthermore not only is cyber bullying not tolerated at school, accessing banned sites while at school subjects a student to punishment.
Still, MLK students don’t accept the fact that MLK has the right to punish students for what they say or write outside of school.
“I don’t agree that the school has the right to punish students over Facebook. Facebook is not affiliated with school so the school has no jurisdiction over what kids post. If there has been only two cases involving two students each semester out of over 1,000 students, then I see no big deal with the school being obsessed with Facebook or any cyber bullying,” said senior Jessica Hill.
Facebook is open and what one does and says can be displayed to all their friends. A student’s friend can see the majority of their posts on their newsfeed.
“I see many of my friends wall post show up on my newsfeed about conversations that I don’t know what the topic is. One person can easily mistake a wall post as offensive and find it as a form of bullying,” said Hill.
Status updates are also a factor in bullying.
“Every once in awhile, I update my status as a playful joke to one of my friends. The MLK administration can easily mistake me for bullying my friends when I’m just having innocent fun,” said Higgins.
MLK’s rules on cyber bullying and invasion of personal life have many students wondering what else is next.
“Where is it gonna stop. MLK is simply making a minor problem bigger than what it has to be. Besides if a student wants to bully another student, they will do it whether it’s on the internet, in person, or anywhere else,” said Higgins.