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Health & Fitness

Drawing the Line on Cyber Bullying

What do you think the school should do about Cyber-Bullying?

I found a gray area that should be handled. I will open with a question. Should an instance of cyber-bullying that happens off campus be handled from the school admins? I think that cyber-bullying is wrong, but the school should not have ultimate reign over the private lives of students.

This following was taken from 2011-2012 student handbook at , "This policy applies to all activities in the district, including activities on school property and those occurring off school property if the student or employee is at any school sponsored, school-approved or school-related activity or function, such as field trips or athletic events where students are under the school’s control, or where an employee is engaged in school business." In my opinion, this implies that if cyber-bullying does not occur on school property, then the school does not have the right to punish the bully.

This next passage comes from the Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District case. The Surpreme court ruled and said "It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate." Readers of this infer that students outside of the "schoolhouse gate" still retain their first amendment right.

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Some might ask why the students were protesting earlier in the month if we are just going to complain about the school having too much power. When the students protested, they wanted the school to be more activally involved when the events happened on the schools property. It is important to say that school life should be separated from home life. Well, to a certain degree. In my opinion the only overlap should be home checking the school.

The school should not be given the power to step in at home and make punishments. That should happen between parents, students and the police department.

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