A recent turn of events at my former high school have evolved into quite a fiasco as of late. Apparently a video of "scuffle" (as worded by Indianapolis TV news) was posted online, which resulted in the people being in the video being suspended. Unfriendly words were directed at the school administration through Facebook, which somehow reached the administrators themselves—this resulted in more suspensions, which caused even more uproar. Someone reposted the video on Youtube and got suspended as well. A Facebook group was created by a student at the high school protesting all of the recent decisions made by school officials with respect to freedom of speech; this group seems to have a fair amount of students in it, reaching almost triple digits. Of course it's incomparable to those "hey guys I want to make a group with a million people in it", but for being the smallest of the four high schools around here, it's a fairly large percentage of high school students involved.
Apparently this chain of events was made a top story on the local news, and made it to Indy news, so I guess it's no small thing. Since I'm obviously no longer attending high school, it's difficult to get a crystal clear picture of what's going on, but from the picture painted by the media and my brothers, who are attending the high school, the situation is just a continual stream of terrible decisions, and not just from school officials.
The whole thing allegedly started due to a video being posted online. To whoever did this: why on Earth did you think this was a good idea? Are fights cool at school now? Get kicks out of watching your angry peers assail each other? That's really cool. Hilarious. Grow up. I don't care what actually happened the video or where it happened; being pedantic about the school code of conduct isn't my goal. Hell, I'll readily admit that I never read that code. Neither did most people who graduated with me. Most of us were smart enough to know that if we simply behaved, then everything would be cool. Getting feel-goods off of a video like that sounds rather juvenile to me. A video of a school fight isn't going to be a blockbuster that makes you a millionaire and a high-profile film maker, either. Maybe you weren't suspended for speech; maybe you were suspended for being stupid.
Of course, no matter how stupid I think posting the video was, I think suspending the person(s) who did so is just as bad, if not worse. The school should know better; we're humans and high schoolers are young humans, typically more prone to error. If school administrators suspended someone every time they did something stupid, the school would be pretty empty. Remember that cliche, "Don't shoot me, I'm just the messenger"? You just shot the messenger. This isn't Sparta. Please stop shooting messengers.
Some students were also suspended for making derogatory comments about school officials, including the vice principal, who was around when I was still in high school. Oops? I guess high schoolers don't know much about diplomacy. The previously linked Indy news article quoted a student, saying:
I called him an obscene name and he called me into his office and he told me he hated me.
That's a great story, right there. Probably one that'll last for generations to come. Okay, personally, I think that it sounds ridiculous. I'm not sure it could sound more ridiculous than it does. I really don't think that a school official would say "I hate you" to a student (followed by a one day suspension), but maybe times have changed. I guess maybe high schoolers were looking for full disclosure and got it straight on. Free speech aside, I don't know why high schoolers feel like they shouldn't be held responsible for what they say. People can get fired for saying stupid things while representing an organization. Granted, these people are typically people with a fair amount of power and responsibility, but that's exactly the point.
But then again, was a full-blown suspension really necessary? If there's anything I learned from my years of being a staff on a MUD full of kids, it's that the best way to avoid overreacting is to ignore what people say. This entire realm of school ethics is apparently a moral gray area (which needs rectification), and the decision made here clearly had an undesirable reaction. The school should probably be the second avenue of teaching kids how to behave, not the first. If a parent grounds a child for misbehavior, I kind of doubt that the entire high school would get up in arms about it. Of course, that means that a child's parents would have to actually care; this is sadly not always the case.
Both news articles indicate a lack of disclosure from school officials regarding the matter. Why is that? Perhaps they've realized that they've gotten themselves into a pickle and have no easy way out. On the other hand, students have been fairly vocal about it, who seem convinced that they're completely right. However, maybe the students aren't as sure of themselves as they seem. The freedom of speech group created on Facebook was made by a freshman at the high school, and it's interesting how the group has progressed. Or has it? The group administrator has blatantly deleted posts that he didn't agree with. Oops. Sounds like a familiar story to me. It's even worse, because this is true censoring.
A few things probably need to happen in order for this situation to settle down. First, either the school administration should stop holing up in their offices and start talking to the press. They should have nothing to hide, apologies not withstanding. The school needs to make policies that pertain to "free speech" on the Internet. Whether or not they're good policies will be tested in time and possibly in court. Kids need to stop believing that they know what's best. The previous paragraph is a prime example of a good idea gone wrong. Sorry, you are still in high school, and believe it or not, you probably lack the wisdom that your elders have. I flew under the radar in high school, and I still look back on high school wondering how I was so silly. And stop posting stupid videos on the Internet. We have lots of those as it is.
