How far does the authority of school administrators extend beyond the school building? Far enough to cyberstalk students and punish them for what they publish to the internet in their spare time?Apparently the superintendent of the Syracuse school district thinks so. Earlier this year a group of students were punished not only for creating a group that pokes fun a teacher, but all of the students who joined the group were punished as well. This situation inadvertantly brings to life an issue of how far schol authority reaches. Faculty member were assigned to moniter the facebook activity of the students. This generated a controverity over whether or not the administration overstepped their bounds. Students will be students. They will make fun of teachers, and every single one of the has at least one teacher that they will hate. If a student dirupts the class room or make fun of said teacher on school property the administration is within every right of the administration to take action. The school has no jurisdiction on the internet, when it is being used at home. It was a violation of the student's right to free speech and moreover their privacy. In their defense the schoolboard claims that the group ccalled the teacher "evil" and features other sorts of written defamation. This is utterly ridiculous who hasn't called a teacher evil. It was said in jest, and if we are to assume that other posts were made in the same vain than this group was uttely harmless. Even if the group was less than harmless, than steps could have been taken to get the group taken down, and the student should have gotten a warning, as opposed to detention. Especially for those who were merely members of the group and did not engae in the creation of the group or psting of malicious material. This was an overreaction of the part of the school and the district and and they went too far in their attempts to quell "disruption" among the student body.
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