Should Schools Be Allowed to Limit Students’ Online Speech?
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’
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v. Berkeley County Schools (Document C). K.K., who formed a discussion group online that accused a classmate of being sexually promiscuous and was joined by more than 20 other classmates, was suspended from school for 10 days and issued a 90-day “social suspension.” On July 27, 2011, the US Court of Appeals ruled that the punishment was just, stating that the “[connection] of K.K’s speech to [the high school’s teaching] interests was sufficiently strong,” and that school officials are “trustees of the student body’s well-being.” When a speech disrupts the interests of the school – that is, teaching and protecting its students, it is then not protected by the First Amendment, and schools should punish its speaker. Even though the speech was off-campus, the sufficient connection of the speech to the interests of the school means that the school has the right to punish the …show more content…
Document A shows that nearly twenty percent of students are cyberbullies, and more than twenty percent of students have been cyberbullied. According to Document B, cyberbullying affects one in ten teachers personally. Cyberbullying affects the privacy, confidence, productivity of teachers and students alike. It is as large a problem as actual bullying, and the quick spreading of everything posted online amplifies the effects of cyberbullying. Schools everywhere concentrate so much of their effort to combat on-campus bullying, they have no excuse to overlook cyberbullying, which affects as many people, and as at least as dangerous as actual
There is an increase in cyberbullying due to technology, the school has the right to protect their students, and it affects how teachers work. Numerous individuals trust that punishing students for what they say outside of school goes against the First Amendment, yet in the event that it disturbs the wellbeing of the student body, something should be done. At the point when students are included with cyberbullying, it unquestionably goes past the school's doors and influences not only the student, but the general population around
Citizens in America are born with a various amount of rights. One of these rights include the freedom of speech and expression. However, school administrators have the ability to restrict a student’s expression. The Supreme Court Cases ‘Bethel School District v. Fraser’ and ‘Frederick V. Morse’ gave schools the right for the administrators to discipline children when they see fit. Students should be able to express themselves in any way without fearing that their school administrators will discipline
Imagine being bashed on my over a dozen kids online saying rude hurtful comments, would you not want someone to help solve this problem? In my DBQ there is seven different documents with seven different examples. After reading and doing extra research on the documents I think schools should be allowed to limit students’ online speech. I believe that the schools are trying to make this a safer place for students.
This document supports limiting online student speech because the court ruled that even though it happened out of school, the school’s reason was strong enough to justify their actions toward K.K.
By limiting online speech, schools will be able to create an amiable atmosphere and keep students focused on school work. Confining speech will also legally protect students' and teachers civil rights to prevent violation of the Fourth Amendment. Lastly, schools should restrict online speech to avert emotional agony in teachers and students and even prevent causalities such as suicides caused by cyberbullying. With increasing technology, it's crucial to develop school policies limiting online speech to keep students focused on their future without the anxiety and fear of being
Many believe that the way to decline the, number of kids cyberbullied, is to limit their speech and rights. The Cyberbullying Research Center recorded that in 30 days that 36 girls have been cyberbullied. That is 1 in 4 girls every day. (Document A) Students are not the only targets for cyber bullying, teachers are as well. According to a Teacher Support Network in the UK. It has found that Pupil’s (Students) are the largest amount of perpetrator’s. (Document B) Cyber Bullying can affect people in several different ways. In Document C, K.K a girl who made a
Contrary to popular belief, cyberbullying only affects a minority of the student body. Recent statistics show that a large percent of students have never been cyberbullied. According to a recent survey 74.9% of girls and 83.4% of boys have never been cyberbullied (Doc A). In reality the effect of cyberbullying is
I believe that schools should limit students online free speech because many students are seriously affected by cyberbullying. And students are not the only victim 15.1% of teachers admit that they have been a victim of cyberbullying. Online bullying has seriously affected both students and teachers too by reducing their self esteem, making them stressed out, and even affecting their home lives. If schools were to limit the
A random sample of 10-18 year olds from a large school district in the southern US showed that on average, 96.15% of students have never posted a mean or hurtful picture online, and 97.05% of students have never had a mean or hurtful picture posted about them. Also, a survey of British School Teachers showed that only 15.1% of them had ever been cyberbullied. All these percents are measly, and contribute to the proposition that cyberbullying isn’t as big a problem as we think, and only affects a sliver of the
Freedom of speech is one of our rights listed in the first amendment, but there should be a limit on what we can and cannot say. Because of the internet, there's a better chance of people getting bullied. People can hide behind a computer screen and say what the want to others without the person knowing who they are. Schools should care about this because this can put students in harm's way. I feel that school should be able to put a limit on students online speech. Three main reasons why there should be a limit on students online speech is boys and girls get bullied everyday over the internet, it causes disturbances in school, and it puts more stress of the schools because they have to deal with it according to law.
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,
Students, parents, and teachers everywhere are being affected by cyberbullying and it is getting worse every day. With technology advancing as fast as it is, everything is starting to revolve around the internet even bullying. Cyberbullying is a problem especially in schools. As the rate of cyberbullying in schools increases, concerned citizens are raising the question: should students be punished for what they say online outside of school? While some people may say limiting students’ freedom of speech online is the best way to stop cyberbullying, the reality is limiting a students’ freedom of speech online is an unacceptable idea because it goes against the First Amendment, and, in truth, it would never get rid of the problem.
That makes no sense cause clearly we all have freedom of speech as a free country in the United State. No, schools should not limit students online speech because freedom of speech is a sacred rights. Students problem w/ cyberbullying have been exaggerated. Restricting students’ speech is an overreaction and violation of the Constitution(DocF).
Cyberbullying is defined as, ¨...bullying that takes place using electronic technology¨ by stopbullying.gov. Recently, schools have been taking actions to punish students for what they do or say online. There have been many debates and trails to figure out whether or not schools should have the power to limit and punish students’ speech online. The Supreme Court ruled that if online speech is disruptive, schools can punish students. School districts should not have the power to limit online speech because online speech does not affect most students and teachers, is not very disruptive, and free speech is a precious right.
Recently, there has been a lot of discussion regarding free speech on college campuses. Our first amendment gives us the right of Free Speech but many groups retain the ability to censor it within their own organisation, such as in the workplace and in both public and private lower education. I believe that the ability should be extended to colleges and universities (both public and private). Students should have the right to be at school while feeling physically safe. An example of this right being violated because of someone else’s “free speech” was last spring at American University in which bananas were strung up on nooses around campus with AKA (a historically-black sorority) labeled on them the day after AU’s first black female student