In an article dated 16 February 2010 on CNN.com, a federal magistrate found that a high school student has a constitutional right to criticize her teacher on Facebook. In this case, a 19-year old student was suspended from school after she used her home computer to create a Facebook page titled, “Ms. Sarah Phelps is the worst teacher I’ve ever met.” The magistrate ruled, however, that, “‘It was an opinion of a student about a teacher, that was published off-campus ... was not lewd, vulgar, threatening, or advocating illegal or dangerous behavior.’”
I agree with the said ruling. Not to take away anything from Ms. Phelps, but this was clearly a case of protected speech. The Internet, more particularly social networking sites like Facebook, is a forum where users can speak out their minds. Unless it borders on unprotected speech like libel or defamation, free speech even on the Internet must likewise be protected. Reading the article makes me recall a similar case in the college almost a month ago. There were no cases, civil, administrative or criminal cases filed. Had there been, I think that the student/s who posted status message/s on Facebook speaking out his/her/their mind/s would clearly has/have been exonerated anyway.
Yet again, lesson learned. Before clicking on the “send” or “post” button, think twice. Consider the consequences. And, make sure to craft it in a way as to fall within the ambit or protected speech.
Reody Anthony M. Balisi
10th Entry
Source:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/ptech/02/16/facebook.speech.ruling/index.html
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
The challenges of technology! There are actually two other cases, and the standards used in resolving whether or not the post of the student is protected speech is if it has the result of "disrupting the school place" which is, like other standards, vague, fact-heavy and very malleable.
inisip ko rin, because of this, dapat magkaroon na rin ng precedent sa philippines (though let's cement our ICT laws first). lalo pa naman sa atin, napaka-techy ng mga pinoy. hindi lang kasi teacher-student eh. how about employer-employee? government-people?
Post a Comment