Principal calling parents about kids xanga site

[Rafiki Rafiki Rafiki]

If parents are letting their kids go onto sites like Zanga and have online journals that they aren't monitoring, they just might beware.

If a kid is slandering his/her teachers online, it's punishable in court. And many states don't ignore parents' lack of control over their children either.

The kind of stuff that kids put online is often hurtful. I speak from our experience. Our daughter ended up in a hospital after what kids said made her feel like she had to hurt herself.

I'm not saying she was completely innocent. But I'm also saying that the things other girls said was just awful, and completely untrue.

If you think you're respecting their privacy, go right ahead. But don't be surprised when they're addicted to drugs, come home HIV positive, or have played a roll in causing another Columbine. You need to be monitoring what your kids do...EVERY DAY.

Set the boundaries, and monitor them regularly to be sure they aren't headed into dangerous territory. If you think your kid would never do X, Y, or Z, think again. That's what I thought.

Monitor away, principals, teachers, and parents. You're guiding your kids.

 

[SillyMe]

If parents are letting their kids go onto sites like Zanga and have online journals that they aren't monitoring, they just might beware.

If a kid is slandering his/her teachers online, it's punishable in court. And many states don't ignore parents' lack of control over their children either.

The kind of stuff that kids put online is often hurtful. I speak from our experience. Our daughter ended up in a hospital after what kids said made her feel like she had to hurt herself.

I'm not saying she was completely innocent. But I'm also saying that the things other girls said was just awful, and completely untrue.

If you think you're respecting their privacy, go right ahead. But don't be surprised when they're addicted to drugs, come home HIV positive, or have played a roll in causing another Columbine. You need to be monitoring what your kids do...EVERY DAY.

Set the boundaries, and monitor them regularly to be sure they aren't headed into dangerous territory. If you think your kid would never do X, Y, or Z, think again. That's what I thought.

Monitor away, principals, teachers, and parents. You're guiding your kids.

Very well said. I agree with you.

 

[pixiedust23]

Another point that hasnt' been brought up yet is whether children had done any of the posting to these sites on school property. B'/c then they can be in for a whole lot more trouble.

Thank you rafiki rafiki rafiki. I thought you were not allowed to post nasty things about your teachers but i wasnt sure so i didnt' want to write that. Glad you knew the facts!

 

[transparant]

If parents are letting their kids go onto sites like Zanga and have online journals that they aren't monitoring, they just might beware.

If a kid is slandering his/her teachers online, it's punishable in court. And many states don't ignore parents' lack of control over their children either.

The kind of stuff that kids put online is often hurtful. I speak from our experience. Our daughter ended up in a hospital after what kids said made her feel like she had to hurt herself.

I'm not saying she was completely innocent. But I'm also saying that the things other girls said was just awful, and completely untrue.

If you think you're respecting their privacy, go right ahead. But don't be surprised when they're addicted to drugs, come home HIV positive, or have played a roll in causing another Columbine. You need to be monitoring what your kids do...EVERY DAY.

Set the boundaries, and monitor them regularly to be sure they aren't headed into dangerous territory. If you think your kid would never do X, Y, or Z, think again. That's what I thought.

Monitor away, principals, teachers, and parents. You're guiding your kids.

Great post!!!!!!!!!

 

[jgmklmhem]

Since I assume these things were marked public meaning anyone could see would it be the principal's right to make sure her school is not being portrayed in a negative light to the public at large. Granted these are just kids opinions but I could see where the school is made to look bad based on such things and as such the principal has the right to fight such things being "published" in the public view. I mean it is First Amendment vs slander type issues. Just throwing out another thought.

 

[SPAM]

i think that these kids were fine in writing them. i have journals and i do write in them all the time. i can say and write whatever i want. if my principal read it then fine, but he/she doesnt have a right to call my parents about it and rat on me, that, is the invasion of privacy. if she wanted to read them, fine. but she should ahve kept it to herself.

 

[Bob Slydell]

If parents are letting their kids go onto sites like Zanga and have online journals that they aren't monitoring, they just might beware.

If a kid is slandering his/her teachers online, it's punishable in court. And many states don't ignore parents' lack of control over their children either.

We obviously don't know what these students are writing in their journals, but somehow I'm doubting it went as far as being slanderous, or the principal would be doing more than just contacting parents.

 

[Towncrier]

Regardless of the outcome, I hope that these students have learned the valuable lesson. That you should only put things into weblogs that you would be willing to stand in a public place and shout out loud. The sooner that kids (and people in general) learn that virtually everything that is transmitted over the internet can be read by people for whom the information is not intended, the better. Same goes for cordless phones. We finally had to get a spread spectrum cordless phone because I got tired of picking up my phone only to hear the people in the neighborhood gossiping on the phone, totally unaware that they were broadcasting to everyone within 1/3 mile.

 

[disykat]

Ok - here I go again. I say YES, it is an invasion of privacy - the privacy of the TEACHERS and PRINCIPAL. If kids are writing on the net - it's not private. However, if they are using people's real names and venting about them on the internet - it is definately an invasion of privacy and possibly slander. The principal's job is to protect his/her staff.

If my child was doing this, I'd want to know.

 

[disykat]

We obviously don't know what these students are writing in their journals, but somehow I'm doubting it went as far as being slanderous, or the principal would be doing more than just contacting parents.

I disagree. I would hope the school would contact parents as their FIRST means of defense and it wouldn't have to go any further.

 

[jgmklmhem]

Ok - here I go again. I say YES, it is an invasion of privacy - the privacy of the TEACHERS and PRINCIPAL. If kids are writing on the net - it's not private. However, if they are using people's real names and venting about them on the internet - it is definately an invasion of privacy and slander. The principal's job is to protect his/her staff.

If my child was doing this, I'd want to know.

Ahhhh good point. I haven't read the rules here in a while but most of us change names to protect the innocent and the not so innocent when we gush/rant. But then again if it is just opinion related stuff...is opinion slander??? I don't know. There is a difference btw my boss sucks to my boss eats small children. One would be a lie (I hope ) one would be opinion.

I also don't get how calling the parents would be out of line. If I saw my kid's friend at the mall yelling obsenities at old people I would probably contact his/her parents.... why is seeing it on the web different.

 

[transparant]

Ok - here I go again. I say YES, it is an invasion of privacy - the privacy of the TEACHERS and PRINCIPAL. If kids are writing on the net - it's not private. However, if they are using people's real names and venting about them on the internet - it is definately an invasion of privacy and possibly slander. The principal's job is to protect his/her staff.

If my child was doing this, I'd want to know.

I totally agree with you.

 

[eeyore45]

Well, kids vent all the time, and schools do have different ways to deal with them, we all know about "slam" books right?

That being vaguely stated... I think there have been cases already protecting the 'freedom of speech' issue... I'm thinking about the 'rate my professor' type pages tho, in which some college professors tried to ban them, but they were 'allowed' if I remember correctly...

http://www.ratemyteachers.com/

 

[Nana Annie]

Who here has seen "Mean Girls"?

Remember the "private" book where the girls wrote that their teacher was doing drugs.

Book went public, teacher was investigated. Caused a nightmare in her life.

Now, this is just a movie, but could easily happen in real life.

If a student is posting things on a public website, it is public. Kids will be kids and might write things that they think are funny or just want to get even because they are angry about something. Kids, especially adolescents are notorious for not thinking before acting. They might post false accusations about somebody, which, are not a threat, but could be potentially harmful to the postee in other ways. They kids might not realize the consequences of posting something they thought was just in fun. But what if a potential employer googled a teacher's name? The blog (because it is public) and all its innuendos could possibly come up. Then if it hurt the teacher's ability to get a job, the kid has just slandered the teacher. And as somebody posted earlier, that is an offense punishable by law.

Anybody think that perhaps the Principal might have been contacting the parents before the teachers contacted the authorities?

With the proliferation of the internet and public domain, it would be a good idea to start visiting the issues of public domain vs. 1st amendment rights in a civics class.

 

[SillyMe]

Who here has seen "Mean Girls"?

Remember the "private" book where the girls wrote that their teacher was doing drugs.

Book went public, teacher was investigated. Caused a nightmare in her life.

Now, this is just a movie, but could easily happen in real life.

If a student is posting things on a public website, it is public. Kids will be kids and might write things that they think are funny or just want to get even because they are angry about something. Kids, especially adolescents are notorious for not thinking before acting. They might post false accusations about somebody, which, are not a threat, but could be potentially harmful to the postee in other ways. They kids might not realize the consequences of posting something they thought was just in fun. But what if a potential employer googled a teacher's name? The blog (because it is public) and all its innuendos could possibly come up. Then if it hurt the teacher's ability to get a job, the kid has just slandered the teacher. And as somebody posted earlier, that is an offense punishable by law.

Anybody think that perhaps the Principal was contacting the parents before the teachers contacted the authorities?

It all depends on what the kids wrote. If they just simply complained about the school or the teachers being mean, etc, they're just venting...not a big enough deal for the principal to call the parents. If they are accusing the teachers of doing something inappropriate, that's a different story.

It wasn't an invasion of privacy when the principal read the sites, but The bottom line is that the PARENTS are the ones who should be monitoring these websites. Why aren't they?

 

[CajunDixie]

Yesterday his principal somehow found everyone's site and read all of them.

Most kids have a list of friends on the left side of their page. It's easy to then visit their sites too.
Without knowing exactly was on the sites we can't say if it is right or wrong of the principal to call the parents. One one hand its free speech to give your opinion of someone/someplace. But if they wrote about breaking the law, falsely accuse a person of something, or talk about suicide then I think the principal should have called the parents. Even though the OP said the sites were not done at school that doesn't mean students do not have access while at school. My DS' GF has accessed her site while at school and added to it while in class. One student even has gone so far as swear in his posts while posting from school. You'd be surprised how many times kids are on the internet at school without being monitored. My DS12 has visited Pogo many times from school. No big deal you think since it's a game site? Well, they also have chats/adult rooms on the right side of the screen while in games.

 

[Rafiki Rafiki Rafiki]

OK, here's a random post from a sixteen-year-old girl. Her name is cutesk8er69 on the Zanga site. I only picked out this name because it was on the list of most recently updated sites...I am only printing part of her page. And the "69" on her page is not referring to the year she was born! If you think it's not bad, visit the page yourself. This passage doesn't even include the paragraphs she's written about the kids she doesn't like. It's at www.zanga.com and is full of this kind of stuff from teens.

"people. Im so fine with it. I want to accept my self so bad. I want to smile and embrace every f*** up of my personality and share with everyone who I am. I am jenny. Jenny. F***ing a. I am someone. SOMEONE! TO B E HAPPY YOU HAVE TO FIND WHO YOU ARE AND I WILL TAKE ME FOREVER BUT IM THIS CLOSE. THIS F***ING CLOSE. Ive been sick this past couple of days. I met Bridget. She’s pretty cool. I don’t really care. Ive been talking to Micheal a lot. He’s been teaching me so much and helping me so much. Yesterday was pretty stupid. I woke up with every body part hurting. Sometimes I wonder if im sick or im just showing severe signs of depression and just death? Hahah. Anyways I slept till 12. Then just mopped around. At 1 randomly got drunk. It was weird. I just kind of sang nirvana and tried to play guitar but my fingers hurt pretty bad they felt heavy you know? It was my first time getting drunk alone. I don’t even know anymore. I just like layed around the house singing, I wanted to move a lot a guess I was either on the floor or always walking around my house. I called a couple of people. I got pretty much sober by 3. I didn’t have that much to drink. I remember I slipped on the bathroom floor and ended up on the sink and then I kind of sat there. W.e. by the time I was sober I was just talking to shelley on the phone and taking stupid hippie/grunge tests. Yeah haha. Then I talked online for a while about nothing? Pretty much. I seriously get all inspirational at night, its kind of crazy. So basically I watched Life or Something like it. I didn’t finish it. But Angelina Jolie is AMAZING. I wanna be like her in everyway like her. She’s just insane. Then basically at 11 I got inspired again. I just layed on my guitar on the floor listening to the Beach Boys ‘God only knows’ reading Kurts biography over again and taking breaks crying. Not because of kurt…but just because of life. Just thinking. I decided im going to get my old high top converse write on them ‘Im f****** outta here, and RIP Kurt Cobain’ and throw them over the electrical wire by fisher when I move. Then ill take a pictures and get out of Los Gatos. Finally. Finally. I look forward to that day so bad. You know what I love Nova. I absolutely Love Nova. Its going to be one of the best defining moments of my childhood. Sadly im not really a gd*** child anymore. The day I leave Nova I will bawl. I will bawl like crazy. Its like leaving my family of the most f***** up crazy amazing kids ive met. All so different, all so funny. Im gonna like seriously remember that group forever. I LEARNED so MUCH! I WILL NEVER FORGET – Travis, Junior (Eduardo HAHA), Ross, Sara, Asa, Julia, April, Kim, Luis, Andrew, Chris Fisher, Angel, Michael Donovan, Jake, Jesse, Lauran, Max, Bridget, Tara, Gary. The rest of the people have f****** freshman phobia haha."

Yeah, you go ahead and trust them. I don't.

 

[transparant]

OK, here's a random post from a sixteen-year-old girl. Her name is cutesk8er69 on the Zanga site. I only picked out this name because it was on the list of most recently updated sites...I am only printing part of her page. And the "69" on her page is not referring to the year she was born! If you think it's not bad, visit the page yourself. This passage doesn't even include the paragraphs she's written about the kids she doesn't like. It's at www.zanga.com and is full of this kind of stuff from teens.

"people. Im so fine with it. I want to accept my self so bad. I want to smile and embrace every f*** up of my personality and share with everyone who I am. I am jenny. Jenny. F***ing a. I am someone. SOMEONE! TO B E HAPPY YOU HAVE TO FIND WHO YOU ARE AND I WILL TAKE ME FOREVER BUT IM THIS CLOSE. THIS F***ING CLOSE. Ive been sick this past couple of days. I met Bridget. She’s pretty cool. I don’t really care. Ive been talking to Micheal a lot. He’s been teaching me so much and helping me so much. Yesterday was pretty stupid. I woke up with every body part hurting. Sometimes I wonder if im sick or im just showing severe signs of depression and just death? Hahah. Anyways I slept till 12. Then just mopped around. At 1 randomly got drunk. It was weird. I just kind of sang nirvana and tried to play guitar but my fingers hurt pretty bad they felt heavy you know? It was my first time getting drunk alone. I don’t even know anymore. I just like layed around the house singing, I wanted to move a lot a guess I was either on the floor or always walking around my house. I called a couple of people. I got pretty much sober by 3. I didn’t have that much to drink. I remember I slipped on the bathroom floor and ended up on the sink and then I kind of sat there. W.e. by the time I was sober I was just talking to shelley on the phone and taking stupid hippie/grunge tests. Yeah haha. Then I talked online for a while about nothing? Pretty much. I seriously get all inspirational at night, its kind of crazy. So basically I watched Life or Something like it. I didn’t finish it. But Angelina Jolie is AMAZING. I wanna be like her in everyway like her. She’s just insane. Then basically at 11 I got inspired again. I just layed on my guitar on the floor listening to the Beach Boys ‘God only knows’ reading Kurts biography over again and taking breaks crying. Not because of kurt…but just because of life. Just thinking. I decided im going to get my old high top converse write on them ‘Im f****** outta here, and RIP Kurt Cobain’ and throw them over the electrical wire by fisher when I move. Then ill take a pictures and get out of Los Gatos. Finally. Finally. I look forward to that day so bad. You know what I love Nova. I absolutely Love Nova. Its going to be one of the best defining moments of my childhood. Sadly im not really a gd*** child anymore. The day I leave Nova I will bawl. I will bawl like crazy. Its like leaving my family of the most f***** up crazy amazing kids ive met. All so different, all so funny. Im gonna like seriously remember that group forever. I LEARNED so MUCH! I WILL NEVER FORGET – Travis, Junior (Eduardo HAHA), Ross, Sara, Asa, Julia, April, Kim, Luis, Andrew, Chris Fisher, Angel, Michael Donovan, Jake, Jesse, Lauran, Max, Bridget, Tara, Gary. The rest of the people have f****** freshman phobia haha."

Yeah, you go ahead and trust them. I don't.

Very sad, and very scary.

 

[christineann]

I agree completely with Rafiki Rafiki Rafiki. I heard that the kids at our school have been doing these online journals and asked my 17 year old daughter about it - she pulled her journal up and showed it to me, which didn't offer anything that would upset me. Not all of the pages are bad - many are about sports, TV shows, clothes, etc. A few days later the headmaster sent out a letter advising parents to talk to their kids about these and to ask to see their pages. When I asked her why, she told me that some of the kids' pages had been viewed at school computers and that some teachers saw them. She showed me some of the questionable pages, and if I were the parent of some of those kids, I would want to know what was going on - documented by photos which bordered on x-rated plus the drinking and dope. Invasion of privacy? Not by a parent. I think the school had a duty to notify parents, even by a generic mailing, since these are all minors.

 

[CruiserDew37]

OK, here's a random post from a sixteen-year-old girl. Her name is cutesk8er69 on the Zanga site. I only picked out this name because it was on the list of most recently updated sites...I am only printing part of her page. And the "69" on her page is not referring to the year she was born! If you think it's not bad, visit the page yourself. This passage doesn't even include the paragraphs she's written about the kids she doesn't like. It's at www.zanga.com and is full of this kind of stuff from teens...


...Yeah, you go ahead and trust them. I don't.

Not every teenager with a journal is writes like this in them. Some of my friends have them and they write about a test they have the next day, or how play practice went, or something funny that happened to them, etc. I would give you the link to my brothers site, but i dont know if he would be upset about that, so i wont, but here's a sample entry from his journal:


Currently Watching
Dr. Dolittle
By Eddie Murphy, Peter Boyle
see related

Hey

Today was the 2nd to the last day of school. A couple of us got to go to east during school and that was fun. 8th grade graduation was 2night and im gonna miss them and i cant go because my parents and sister are at a mass because my sister is graduating from highschool. We have a circus tent in our back yard. Well i hope our whole class comes back nxt year and if they dont, o well. They should, u 2 deana even lol. im gonna go. Bye

~Sean


There's nothing any worse than that entry in the entire thing.