This school year, the Glendale School District, located in suburban Los Angeles, hired a firm to monitor middle and high school students’ public postings on social media. The firm was hired to search for possible bullying, drug use, violence and suicidal threats.
Many schools in California are starting to monitor students’ social media for the purpose of student safety. At several schools, educators can punish students for their behavior online if that behaviour extends to something that would enter the school environment.
Students who are minors have limited rights to the First Amendment, therefore giving schools the right to monitor students.
Schools should be able to monitor students online, but should only be able to punish them if their behavior can be considered any form of bullying. Even though there may be inappropriate content on a student’s online profile, as long as it doesn’t affect the safety and well-being of another student or group of students at school, the school has no business getting involved.
According to the Saratoga High School’s bullying policy, which can be found on the school website, the district board defines harassment or cyber bullying as “harassment of students or staff, such as bullying, including cyber bullying, intimidation, hazing or initiation activity, ridicule, extortion, or any other verbal, written, or physical conduct that causes or threatens to cause bodily harm or emotional suffering …”
If a student is potentially causing “emotional suffering” to another student, it can be considered a form of bullying. Because of this, the student deserves to be punished.
Furthermore, a school’s primary purpose is to educate students and to do so, students must feel safe at school. If their academics are at all affected in a negative way by another student on social media, it is the school’s job to get involved and clear up the situation.
Some may say online monitoring is a direct violation of students’ privacy. But a school must do everything in its power to ensure students are in a position to learn, even if it means sacrificing online privacy.
In short, online monitoring is a good idea for schools, but should only be acted upon when students’ online activities interfere directly with academics.
