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S is a 59 year old African-American female born and raised in Anson County who has attended several institutes of higher learning. After earning a Bachelor of Science in Secretarial Administration from Barber-Scotia College, she later received special education teaching licensure from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Because of her love for learning, S has also taken online classes through the University of Phoenix. She has been a secondary special education teacher for three years and currently works with 8th graders at Anson Middle School.
Also reared in Anson County, J is a 32 year old Caucasian male who earned a degree in history and international studies from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. His love of …show more content…

According to J, truly democratic classrooms are not possible particularly at the middle school level; few students at this age have the maturity for such a model to work. There are certainly those few that take their education seriously and have intellectual interests; however, the fact that they are a minority would marginalize their input in the decision making process. The ultimate authority of the teacher provides a check on everything from classroom expectations to bullying.
When posed with the question whether schools have grounds to punish students for their off-campus online speech, J expressed that the implications of the question are quite broad and require some nuance in approach. Public schools do have grounds to punish students for their off-campus online speech, but only in limited and specific circumstances. Threats of violence and harassment (such as cyberbullying) directed at members of the school community should certainly be dealt with by school administration. However, online speech that is merely controversial or vulgar, without threatening the safety of a specific person or groups of people, should not be addressed by school administrators. S agreed that public schools cannot control what a student says online off-campus except when it involves the safety of the school and/or students. If a student threatens to bring harm to others, be it staff or their peers, the principal

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