Caution: School Zone

One of my friends is a high school teacher. During one of our (very few) nights out, she told me about an incident between the seniors and some of the faculty members. Apparently, some of the aforementioned students had something like a pool party, complete with bikinis and booze. I don’t know how the bikinis looked, or if they were, indeed, tiny. Nor do I have any idea of how much booze was involved. All I know is that they took pictures of themselves during the party in what was deemed by many as rather provocative poses. These pictures were then uploaded to their multiply sites.

Yes. I’m sure anyone reading this knows where this is going.

One of the faculty members was among one of the partygoer’s multiply friends. She saw the pictures and was, for lack of a better word, scandalized. She then told the principal and other members of the administration about the pictures, and showed them the shots. The school summoned the students and their parents.

It was, in short, a bit of a circus.

The school, then, began to come up with what they began to call “internet etiquette” rules. Now, I know I don’t have any kids, but I have to admit, I had strong feelings on the matter. I wouldn’t want that to happen to any of my kids, I wouldn’t want any of my kids to get into anything like that (if the interpretation of the school was not exaggerated). But it made me wonder, where does privacy come into play? Admittedly, the teacher was in the student’s friends list. But where do you tell the school that it isn’t any of their business anymore, that it’s the parents’ turf now? And wow, internet etiquette rules? Was the school going to start monitoring internet use at home?

I don’t know exactly how a parent would feel about it, of course. As I said, I wouldn’t want that to happen to any of my kids, I wouldn’t want any of my kids to get into anything like that. But would that extend to allowing the school to interfere in my home?

[end blog no. 12; images by longlasting and namariz, respectively]