Principal calling parents about kids xanga site

[Saffron]

No, it's not an invasion of privacy. The the Internet and all it holds is for public use, unless something is intentionally set up for private viewing only.

I highly doubt the principal would call the parents if the children were calling the teachers names and venting about them, or if they were just posting the example you posted. There has to be much more to the story than that. Principals and teachers have too much to do without sweating the small stuff. RafikiX3 gave a good example of what might really be going on. I wouldn't hesitate to call a parent if I read something like that.

Your brother may have played a small or no part, but I bet that other kids played a much bigger role, in prompting the principal to call. Maybe the call to your parents was just an "FYI, this is what's happening, I'm contacting all the parents to let them know, I want to cover all bases." sort of thing.

 

[Rafiki Rafiki Rafiki]

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...

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

That's great, but if the kids at that school were posting just that kind of stuff, then the principal wouldn't be calling.

How many of those kids would be writing the same stuff if they knew their parents were watching?

 

[Chris2597]

I dont think it is an invasion of privacy as it is public....but the principal, in my opinion stuck her nose where it doesnt belong....If the kids were only venting their opinions about certain teachers and not just bad mouthing/slandering that is just venting...My dd 16 has shared her Zanga journal with me.....
If the principal was concerned about the content of the Zanga journals she should have advised all of the parents that they should check this out as she had some concerns about things that were being written by students.....

 

[DisneyCP2002]

The principal had no right to do that. What is said outside of school shouldn't affect school.

 

[Kermit]

I think the principal and teachers SHOULD read the journals regularly. They need to keep up with their students and find out what's going on in their lives. If I were in the principal's shoes, I probably would have just called the parents whose children had posted something disturbing. However, I would have sent a note home or emailed all the parents in the school to tell them about the journals, that they should be monitoring them, and to tell them that slander is always illegal.

 

[LoraJ]

I hope all these kids learned their lesson and learned how to make their journal entries private. I tried to contract cutesk8er69 to tell her someone has been copying her journal and posting it on a message board and maybe she should lock her journal, but her user name doesn't exist.


If your child leaves their journal or diary on their nightstand table and forgets to lock it, do you read it?

Do you really think cutesk8er69's parents are gonna care if the principal tells them about these journals?

Was everyone you knew as a teenager this perfect child that never did drugs or drank? I didn't, but I'm not everyone.

So these kids may vent about school. So what? Don't most teens?

I think it's nice that these teens have a place to write down their feelings and what it going on in their life. Maybe one of cutesk8er69's friends will recognize she has a problem and help her get some sort of help. Maybe she's just saying that stuff to sound "cool". You don't know.

 

[ladycollector]

I really wouldn't care that he read it, that's his right.

BUT, he is in no position to tell kids not to post negative statements about the school.

If the kids want to vent about school, that is their natural born right.

 

[pixiedust23]

BUT, he is in no position to tell kids not to post negative statements about the school.

If the kids want to vent about school, that is their natural born right.

Actually depending on what they say it can be considered slander and he can take legal action against them. This is true if they use slander against a teacher as well. I understand kids need to vent but I dont see why they need to post it on the internet. Write it down in a regular journal and save yourself the hassle.

 

[chadfromdallas]

Actually depending on what they say it can be considered slander and he can take legal action against them. This is true if they use slander against a teacher as well. I understand kids need to vent but I dont see why they need to post it on the internet. Write it down in a regular journal and save yourself the hassle.

I could never see a case forming over negative comments on a blog....

 

[*NikkiBell*]

delete

 

[pixiedust23]

I could never see a case forming over negative comments on a blog....

I believe there is somewhere on this thread something from about this actually being a case. lol i'm just too lazy to reread through it all.

 

[Nancy]

I'm trying to see both sides of the picture here. As a parent I think I would be a bit upset to think that the principal of my DD's school would be reading their on-line journal. I am their parent and I check out what they are writing in theirs. BUT if by some chance I missed something I would want somone telling me about it. Does that make sense? I think it just disturbs me because we had a teacher arrested for child pornography and my first thought is why is an adult reading kids on-line journals.

When I was a kid we used to write notes all the time about how we hate Mrs. So and So and she sucks, Or Mr. Blank is such a big jerk, can you believe that test. We were venting, it was nothing personal. If the teachers intercepted the notes they were thrown out.

 

[dancergirl]

I havent read everything, but a few years ago our band booster president got one of my (sorta) friends in trouble by something she wrote on Live Journal. (I believe its similar to Xanga.) I believe the friend just said that she didnt like the lady and didnt want to listen to her or something- nothing threating. I dont know how she found it, but I think it was kinda stupid to punish the girl for something that didnt take place at school or band.

I think the principal shouldnt of called the parents. Its not an invasion of privacy to read them because they are public, but I think its kinda strange!!

 

[Katie]

My daughter has AIM...and several of her friends have these xanga sites..online journals..ect. I read alot of these people's profiles. I am shocked to read the explict language that goes on these sites...these are JR high girls. My friends' girl, in her xanga journal wrote how she spent the night with her girlfriend and then they sneaked out and met some boys and all the things that happened. OMG!!! I didn't know what to do with that information...... still don't. If my friends knew that about my daughter..I would want to know..but sometimes, I think some parents want to be in the dark...and this girl's mother is one of them I believe. I went back several days later to print it out..so It wouldn't be my word against the 14 yr old girls...but that post was missing...so either the girl thought better of writing in the journal..or another mother saw it..and well...problem solved!

I think all parents should monitor what these kids are Im'ing each other..because it is much easier to say nasty things on the internet that in person!

JMHO

 

[golfgal]

It can't be an invasion of PRIVICY if they put it on a PUBLIC website. I don't think the principal should have called anyone as long as there were no threats or dangerous behavior.

 

[Barb D]

ETA: No threats were made in any journals, and they are not password protected

Off topic: What does "ETA" mean in this context? I see it sometimes in posts, and I've never known what it stands for. I always thought of "ETA" as "Estimated Time of Arrival."

On topic: I've never been on Xanga, and as far as I know my kids don't have journals there...but if they did and I didn't know about it, and if they were saying something disturbing, I'd be thankful to the person who told me.

 

[Charade]

Off topic: What does "ETA" mean in this context? I see it sometimes in posts, and I've never known what it stands for. I always thought of "ETA" as "Estimated Time of Arrival."

Edited To Add...

 

[Disney Doll]

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.

If your journal is posted online for all the world to read, then it is not private, therefore anyone reading is not invading your privacy. I can read it, your principal can read it...heck, your parents can read it if they are aware that you are journalling on that site.

Your principal calling your parents about what you've written online is not invading your privacy...again...an Internet journalling site is not "private". I think the principal is silly to care what a bunch of middle or high school aged kids are saying about her or the other teachers, because school-aged kids always some teachers or the principal for a variety of usually silly reasons.

Truthfully, though, if I were a teacher or principal, I'd monitor the site on occasion just to make sure there were no Columbine type things in the planning stages. The only difference is, I wouldn't let any of my students know I was monitoring.

If you don't want anyone else to see it, don't put it in writing.

 

[Disney Doll]

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/

Freedom of speech is a wonderful thing, and should be protected at all costs.

With freedom comes responsibility...if you say it, you now become responsible for any effect your words may have.

That's why you should be careful what you say, write, post.

 

[pixiedust23]

On the subject of slam books is the movie Mean Girls where girls created a slam book and insinuated that their math teacher was a drug dealer and then a serious investigation was led against that teacher. If I was her you bet your sweet behind I'd be consulting with a lawyer to see what could be done.