Shoutbox

I'm not trying to bump this like the other threads I did a while back, but its just that there is more news on this again, but now the situation escalated:

quote:

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Students suspended for cyber-bullying school staff

Nicole Girardin
CanWest News Service; National Post

Friday, March 23, 2007

TORONTO - Three more Scarborough, Ont., high school students were suspended Thursday for "cyber-bullying" staff members, igniting a fresh debate on whether schools can impose limits on online speech.

Five Birchmount Park Collegiate Institute students have now been suspended between five and 20 days, after posting derogatory comments on the popular social-networking website Facebook.com.

The case comes in the wake of a similar incident last week in Sherwood Park, Alta., outside Edmonton, in which four students were expelled and 20 suspended for alleged cyber-bullying.

"These comments were so inappropriate that we had to take this seriously and take some action,"Anne Kerr, superintendent of southern Scarborough for the Toronto District School Board, said Thursday.

She characterized the comments as "defamatory, harassing, and unkind,"adding: "Our society doesn't give the right to slander or malign."

In an e-mail interview, one of the suspended students acknowledged setting up a "private" discussion group about a Birchmount Park vice-principal, but said the school has taken it "way out of hand."

Said Kerr: "There's nothing private about this. Look at the media frenzy we're in the middle of now and the people they're targeting. It's not fair, it's not right."

Kerr said the board has in recent years developed an online code of conduct, which is clearly spelled out in student handbooks.

Osgoode Hall Law professor Jamie Cameron said Thursday Internet postings are protected by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, although freedom of expression is subject to "reasonable limits."

"I find it odd that students would be suspended for expressive activities which were undertaken outside of school hours and without using school property," Cameron wrote in an e-mail Thursday.

Faye Mishna, an associate social work professor at the University of Toronto, said free speech allows you to say you're mad at someone, but not make derogatory comments about them.

National Post

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News clip links available at http://www.canada.com/globaltv/ontario under Facebook: Cause of suspension

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4 people were arrested, 1 was expelled.

I dont even know who's right and who's not now...both have so many pros and cons...