The Rights of School Administrations

[jowrose]

I wasn't sure where to post this, maybe it belongs in General Discussion. Oh well.

 

A couple of weeks ago, a kid at my high school posted on his MySpace website a statement about his desire to have sex with one of his teachers. The school administration caught wind of this, and suspended the student for a week. Do they have the right to do this? I'm not defending the guy, he's a jerk, but isn't this out of their jurisdiction? Or would they be able to argue that his actions were disrupting the learning of other students?

[cosine]

This reminds me of something that happened last year when i was in highschool, our school's administration found a large archive of photos of a large amount of students where many people were holding alcoholic beverages. They then went on to call all parents of any students they had found in the pictures. Many students were at first perturbed by it, but everyone soon realized that basically the administration had an obligation to do something. Because God forbid something should happen to someone at one of those parties, and then they find out that the administration was aware of such activities and didn't at least let the parents be aware too, the school would be in a huge dunk of doo doo.

[brad89]

I suppose legally, it should be out of their jurisdiction to suspend him. But, as the staff is made of human beings, they should also naturally make some kind of statement about the incident. Perhaps if they were able to make the student confess to the statement, then they could get him in trouble. That is a tough one to judge. After school, if you aren't on school property, then you do have a freedom to do what you want.

 

Personally, I think it was out of their jurisdiction.

[Sisyphus]

I don't even understand. Is it illegal to say you want to have sex with someone?

[penagate]

IMO, it sounds like it had nothing to do with the school - so they had no right to suspend him for it.

 

Seems like there have been a few examples recently of blogs getting people in trouble. Just goes to show it's easy to get lulled into a false sense of security. People forget that a blog is still a public page, not some personal diary.

[Dak]

I don't even understand. Is it illegal to say you want to have sex with someone?

 

On a public medium... Depending upon the wording, I suppose it could count as sexual harrasment?

[budullewraagh]

webster says sexual harassment is:

"uninvited and unwelcome verbal or physical conduct directed at an employee because of his or her sex"

 

interestingly, a whole lot of things we call "sexual harassment" really aren't just that

[jowrose]

What's ironic is that this guy is that teachers "teacher's assistant." Needless to say, I don't think he is anymore...

 

It's an interesting scenario. If this kid had any brains (which he doesn't), he'd take the school district to court. I hope he doesn't, that would be a bad thing for this town...

[Pangloss]

It would be helpful to know what the administrator's reasons for the suspension were. I'm not sure we can accomplish a whole lot here without that information.

[MulderMan]

By american deifnition, what is a "school administrator"?

[cosine]

By american deifnition, what is a "school administrator"?

School administrators are usually anyone in a position to run a school or large part of a school. For instance, depending on the school, a department head may be considered a school administrator. The principal of a school is almost always an administrator. And anyone in power above the principal is certainly an administrator. This goes all the way up the ladder to the Superintendent of schools. (Although there is also a Board of Education elected by the disctrict the school is serving... if its public anyway. As for private schools, I believe they have a Board of Trustees, whoare usually people who donate lots of money to the school. At least thats how it is at my private university, but I went to public high school, so I don't know if private high schools are different.)

[ecoli]

This reminds me of something that happened last year when i was in highschool, our school's administration found a large archive of photos of a large amount of students where many people were holding alcoholic beverages.

 

Marijuana as well... sucks especially for one student, whose father was a police officer. Oh well.

 

@ OP

 

I don't believe they were allowed to suspend the person, sexual fantasies are not even a punishable offense, AFAIK. Perhaps the student could've succesfully appealed the decision. That's besides the fact that Myspace.com is not a domain of the public school, so any information found on that website, unrelated to ACTUAL events involving the school, should not be punishable, although the school probably shoul've just notified the parents.

[jowrose]

I would consider school administrative staff to be anyone above the level of teacher. Deans, counselors, Assistant principals, principals, superintendents, etc...

[Phi for All]

It would be helpful to know what the administrator's reasons for the suspension were. I'm not sure we can accomplish a whole lot here without that information.

I'm with Pangloss here. Without knowing why they issued the suspension we're just speculating.

 

It would also help to know how this "desire" was phrased. "I'd like to sleep with her" is different from "I'd like to tie her up and **** her brains out!" If the administration had any reason to think the teacher might have been in danger then they had an obligation to take action.

 

Let me ask you this: if a student told a teacher he/she wanted to have sex with him/her in the middle of a class, would it be cause for suspension? Since it was done in public on the web is there really any difference? brad89 said:

After school, if you aren't on school property, then you do have a freedom to do what you want.

but is this really true?

[cosine]

I would consider school administrative staff to be anyone above the level of teacher. Deans, counselors, Assistant principals, principals, superintendents, etc...

I hate to drag woefully off-topic, but I think I'd have to disagree with counselours being administrators. They are usually below teachers on the totem pole, and would have no power to hire or fire anybody.

[ecoli]

I'm with Pangloss here. Without knowing why they issued the suspension we're just speculating.

 

It would also help to know how this "desire" was phrased. "I'd like to sleep with her" is different from "I'd like to tie her up and **** her brains out!" If the administration had any reason to think the teacher might have been in danger then they had an obligation to take action.

 

Sure, but action could've been notifying the police for potential libel case. I don't think suspension is a punishment that fits the crime, no matter how the exact wording was. To me, suspension should result in violation of school policy, actions done on school. The only time suspension should occur for out of school behavior is for actions performed off school grounds that violate school contracts (drinking alcohol in-season for football players, for example.)

 

 

If you ask me, the school's arm is stretching too long, esp. in this case. Such a matter is for police investigation, it's not in the domain of the school (which exists to educate, if I remember correctly)

[jowrose]

Yeah, cosine, you're probably right. I was thinking along the lines that counselors have power to punish students, but then again, so do teachers. So i guess administration would be deans, assistant principals, head principal, and everything above.

 

Yeah, it is harder to make a decision without knowing the exact phrasing of the statement as well as the school's rationale for punishment. I'll dig around for some info.