In the article, “Watch What You Tweet”, by the National Coalition Against Censorship, it informs the mischief of what students are capable of when using social media to offend an individual, which can lead to school officials suspending or expelling them, and in end, violating their First Amendment rights.
In modern society today, freedom of speech has been a main concern to delinquents as to what they say on the web. Although, cyberbullying has turned into a major issue online that has gotten the schools’ attention and turn towards the security of their students. To accomplish nurturing their students’ safety, they have punished pupils for what they say on the Internet that is harmful in account of others. Alternatively, the Constitution believes this goes against the First Amendment and violates the students’ rights. Schools should be authorized to limit students’ online speech to decrease the matter of cyberbullying which has affected us in many ways.
Social media in the 21st century has altered behind the shadows of Regina George. Americans use the First Amendment as an excuse for unlimited speech, however, free speech is not absolute since the Supreme Court has allowed certain limits on that freedom. These limits include clear and present danger, fighting words, obscenity, conflict with other important interests, and time, place, and manner. Today, many free speech controversies are centered in the use of technology including cellular phones, text messages, Twitter, Facebook, and email. These effects of online speech can deluge into schools, and administrators are responsible for maintaining an appropriate environment. They
Cyberbullying is a very controversial topic these days, some may think that to prevent this school should limit students’ speech, others argue that it prevents students right to learn.
On the issue of whether or not schools should be allowed to limit students’ online speech, I firmly believe that they shouldn’t. Doing so directly infringes upon the student’s first amendment rights to the freedom of speech, and for what? Numerous surveys have shown that cyberbullying isn’t a huge problem. Further, one document affirms the conclusion that cyberbullying is just another phase in the long-running evolution of bullying. With this essay, I aim to convince you that schools should not limit their students’ online speech, using my vast knowledge as well as cold hard facts.
Has freedom of speech changed since then? Some schools nowadays punish kids for online social media comments. (WHEELER) For example, if a student posts something on Facebook, and another kid comments on that status with a rude remark, the kid who posted it could take that to the principal’s office and the kid who commented on it could get in trouble. Some could say it was cyber-bullying, some could say it was just a witty/rude remark, not meant to be taken seriously. Is this a violation of free speech/expression? Another reason school authority figures have a lot of power over whether or not a student gets in trouble for what they say, posts, or wears, is that the school can discipline a student just because they personally or morally did not like the comment/post. Most of the time, the kids that get in trouble for something they post are in their own home, on their own laptop, during their free time outside of school. So why does the school have so much power over these situations the majority of the time? “The digital age, with its wonderful capacity to democratize speech, is so important to students’ rights, but also carries new and interesting threats to students’ rights,” Tinker says. “If we don’t encourage young people to use their
Living now in the 21 century almost every student has a cell phone, computer, or some sort of access to the internet and technology and because the way we communicate has changed now, the way we bully is changing. Cyberbullying is turning into the new form of harassment as technology increases, and six middle school girls ages 12-13 thought to use this new method of online bullying to create a facebook page verbally assaulting teachers they did not like and they even called the facebook page “‘Attack-a-School Day.’” They even got other kids involved in the abuse. The young teens were charged with misdemeanor but they tried to argue to side of free speech(case 2). One hundred percent the first amendment in the constitution should be followed
Evidence of this is, on June 13th, 2011 a student going by the name J.S was suspended for creating a MySpace account where she posted hurtful statements using vulgar language about her middle school principal. The day after she made the account, rumblings in the hallways began to happen and students began discussing the profile during class time. This evidence helps explain why school should limit student’s online speech because if profiles like these keep being created in class, because there's no limit to what students can and cannot say then students will continue talking about them during class and that could cause bigger discussions and all of those conversations will lead to no learning getting done during
Schools should take action if there is harm being done to others. In Document A of” Should Schools Be Allowed to Limit Students’ Online Speech?”, they surveyed a random sample of 10-18 year-olds from a large school district in the southern US. It shows that girls are more likely to be cyberbullied. It also shows that girls are more likely to cyberbully somebody else. According to the graph, 25.1% of girls have been cyberbullied in their lifetime,
Every day millions of people log onto social media platforms. There has been much discussion on whether or not individuals should be prosecuted for statements made on social media platforms. Individuals should be prosecuted for statements made on social media. Although cyberbullying is just a small crime, people should still be punished for harsh or hateful remarks on social media. Having freedom of speech is a privilege not a right, we should focus on the bigger stories on cyberbullying, and individuals affected by cyberbullying are affected in all aspects of their life.
The purposes of schools include protecting and educating its students. Therefore, naturally, when a student is cyberbullying someone else, the school seeks to intervene. However, many argue that a school’s intervention of its students’ online speech is in violation of their First Amendment rights. Should schools be allowed to limit students’ online speech? That is, should schools be allowed to punish the things its students post online, even if they are done outside of school, and from their personal devices? The answer is clearly yes. From the concept, to the precedence, to the data, to a letter from the US Department of Education, evidences everywhere supports limiting students’
Some people believe that the internet is “designed for opinions, rants, and invective” (Source C). They use that excuse to justify their actions whether their comments are friendly or not. In another case, more than 50 students protest a principal’s decision to suspend a student for cyberbullying. The students that did participate in the sit-in expressed that the student accused of cyberbullying was “exerting his rights to post what he pleases” (Source B). These accounts prove that the bullies know what they are doing is wrong and are aware of the potential outcome of their words. When students are accused of cyberbullying another person, they often find an excuse for what they did; the First Amendment of the Constitution. However, if these adolescents felt as if their comments were not wrong in any way, they would not bother to look for an excuse when being
This paper addresses a situation in which a student notified this author that she was being subjected to bullying through another classmate’s Facebook page. A discussion of steps required by Oregon’s statutes, the Lake Oswego School District 's board policies and the student handbook, will provide a basis for examining any First Amendment arguments that the bullying has raised, with a discussion of the author 's First Amendment responses consistent with applicable Supreme Court cases.
Censorship cases often bring about debates over students’ first amendment rights. Students’ first amendment rights are important to preserve so that students can not be excluded from meaningful works or literature. It is understandable for the government to design educational plans as a way to get its voice into classrooms, but “the truth-promoting function of the First Amendment provides no reason, however, to question the right of students to explore a variety of ideas and perspectives, and to form and express ideas of their own” (Brown, 1994, p. 30). Schools already place a restriction on religious material or material addressing current political controversy (Brown, 1994).
“As the use of social media increases and becomes an integral part of nearly every student’s life, problems arise when student expression on these sites turns into threats against the school or other students, implicating both student safety and the speaker’s right to free speech” (Hughes 208). There’s no denying that social media has become a part of most people’s daily life. We have sites like Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Facebook, Reddit, YouTube, LinkedIn, etc. These websites, or apps, allow us to express ourselves in any way possible, whether it’s supporting families who lost a member in a mass shooting, trying to impeach the latest president, or donating to those who are victims of natural disasters. It’s not always that social
In this paper, I argue that social media may be an outlet for freedom of expression but it has been widely misused since there is little control over social media. The aim is to convince the reader that social media is a ground for insults, threats and bullying, given the freedom of expression and lack of governance that