Students Suspended for Calling Teacher Pedophile on Facebook, Principal Violates Privacy to Find Out

I’ve never heard of a case of forcing a child to an ‘alternative school’ for insulting a teacher, and I’ve seen some bad insults said directly to the teacher. This has got to be about the principal using these students as an example. That being said, being able to tell a student to log into their own private account and delete whatever he wanted them to is unacceptable.

This is a case of extreme bullshit.

A teacher cannot force a child to do anything, strip naked or log on to facebook.

Surely this is a case of the Principle stepping way out of bounds when a few hours stint in detention and a formal apology would have been sufficient.

Is there not some kind of scale in these punishments?

There is no libel.

Solution: Don’t let a 12 year old have his/her Facebook account. It’s against the terms. Parents/guardians should be aware of that. This is just one of the reasons why Facebook won’t let kids register for an account.

Maybe the guy really is a pedophile.

Even ignoring the awful breach of conduct by the principal, this is an incredibly extreme punishment. I bet you can hear that said along with worse in the halls everyday, and kids who get caught saying it probably get little more than a scolding or detention. A school for troubled youths is for kids who are violent, unstable, actually troubled, not 12 year old honor students who said one nasty thing on facebook. What bullshit, if that happens, these kids lives will be ruined forever, hope this asshole loses his job.

I think there should be consequences to calling a teacher a pedofile, something that could stick w/ that teacher for the rest of his or her life, and ruin his or her career. Kids SHOULD be made to understand how serious this is. Their parents should be handling that, of course.

That said, the principal was WAY out of line here, and the punishments are extremely over the top. I look forward to seeing how this plays out in court.

I am glad to see the adults stand up to moronic juveniles for a change. Saying something like that about someone comes with the responsibility that if it is a lie, they should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. If they want to mouth off wrecklessly, they should pay the price for doing so. Unfortunately the parents will probably pay the price for this little pricks comments. I would surrender the little jackass to the authorities immediately.

I don’t really see it as any different to if the child had written this in a private book which they had brought to school and shown their mates.

If the teacher had ordered them to open the notebook to see what was written there, and then confiscate it, I don’t think anyone would have thought twice.

If a student is writing this kind of thing then it’s probably not an isolated incident. There is presumably much more of a history to the child than is presented here. Therefore, it’s impossible to tell whether or not sending the child to an alternate school is a good idea.

I thought that schools for troubled youths were supposed to help them anyway.

I’m pretty sure if a child writes in a notebook a load of shit about a teacher, then the teacher can both ask to see it, and confiscate it.

It’s not like asking them to “strip naked”. Get a grip.

And that is why this is NOT a minor issue. You make an accusation like this and it can easily ruin an Innocent persons life. How many fools, right now are thinking “Maybe the guy really is a pedophile”
These kids should be ashamed and their parents should also!

Again, what these kids did could ruin the teachers life. The kind of “ruin” that would make an alternative school look like a hayride. The idea that kids don’t have to take responsibility for their actions is bull shit. They shouldn’t have privacy until they are old enough to know how to use it.

Well, the kids should not have written that, but the principal had NO right to force one of them to get into a PRIVATE account, on school grounds, and then force them to delete comments. The kids should be reprimanded, but the principal should be fired!

I’m pretty sure that teachers have similar rights to parents in this regard. I can’t believe people are against this.

What if the kid had a knife in his bag? Is the teacher out of line in forcing the kid to reveal his private property to him? Calling someone a paedophile and rapist in public is a very serious thing.

A teacher, like a parent, needs to be able to tell a kid to leave the room, stop talking, open his bag, empty his pockets or show him his notebooks. I don’t really see how his facebook wall is much different.

If the kid wanted his facebook wall private, he shouldn’t have slagged a teacher off.

Forcing them to log into a password protected service that holds personal information is more like looking in someone’s underwear than a notebook.

No its not. Stop trying to create an analogy that is way off the mark.

What if a student had written in their notebook that they were planning on going to a school to gun down said teacher. Would the principal have the right to view said spiral notebook? Of course! FB is no different. A minor is a minor. The principal did nothing to violate the basic human rights of this child. Whether the child writes that a teacher is a rapist or writes that they are coming to school with a gun to kill someone, the principal has the adult authority to ensure that both teachers and children are protected while under his/her roof.

This ultimately goes back to the parents letting their middle-school-aged child have a FB account and allowing them to post whatever they want with no supervision or fear of repercussions. Parents don’t want to parent but they sure as hell don’t want the school to “parent” either. FAIL.

I dunno, sounds a lot like a notebook to me.

I don’t keep my personal information in my underwear.

Actually your wrong, in the terms and conditions it states that if you have consent from a parent or guardian you can sign up while under the age of 14.

exactly – expulsion is too light. If the school does not have the right to do this it should be taken to the proper authorities. Lock those libelous brats up.

This isn’t about a student simply mouthing off to a teacher (which, what the hell – that’s okay to do now according to some of the comments?) this is about people calling someone a rapist and a pedophile. Women are stalked and harassed for naming their rapist after an OBVIOUS case of rape, but we’re supposed to let this go? This is ridiculous. Children need to learn how to behave themselves and letting them get away with shit like this is not going to make them do that.

exactly – expulsion is too light. If the school does not have the right to do this it should be taken to the proper authorities. Lock those libelous brats up.

This isn’t about a student simply mouthing off to a teacher (which, what the hell – that’s okay to do now according to some of the comments?) this is about people calling someone a rapist and a pedophile. Women are stalked and harassed for naming their rapist after an OBVIOUS case of rape, but we’re supposed to let this go? This is ridiculous. Children need to learn how to behave themselves and letting them get away with shit like this is not going to make them do that.

Bglamb, you make a good point, but who knows. Nowadays maybe a teacher could get in trouble for asking a student to open a goddamn book.

Bglamb, you make a good point, but who knows. Nowadays maybe a teacher could get in trouble for asking a student to open a goddamn book.

Ok I’ve been mulling this over for a bit. Bottom line is this. Yes they should be punished. But by the parents who need to take responsibility for their children’s actions, NOT by the school system. We’re still missing some vital details about this case that can determine the actual severity of their actions.

The most important is the privacy level settings of their FB accounts. Not sure if FB forces accounts for those under 14 into private or not (Myspace used to). But if their accounts were set to private (as they should have been) then this is NOT libel. These statements need to be made in public for them to be considered libel. When their privacy is set to max the said conversation amounts to little more than a few preteens sitting around in their bedroom on a 3-way call bitching and moaning about their teacher – wrong, but no harm done because it was a private conversation. If caught it’s something the parents should handle… End of story.

However if their accounts are set to public (which is unfortunately the case for most adults on FB) then yes that definitely qualifies as libel and their punishment should be what it is or worse.

The principal on the other hand, regardless of the above, was WAY out of line. Accessing someone’s FB private account the way she did is HIGHLY unethical and in no way what-so-ever like looking at a notebook (like someone compared it to above). The student had every right to deny the principal access to it and failed to excercise that right. FB is an off campus activity and she had no right to access it. The fact that she had to have the student login right there sounds to me like the accounts were set to private.

The final thing is I have to even wonder why a middle-school library gives students access to Facebook – it should be blocked.

Ok I’ve been mulling this over for a bit. Bottom line is this. Yes they should be punished. But by the parents who need to take responsibility for their children’s actions, NOT by the school system. We’re still missing some vital details about this case that can determine the actual severity of their actions.

The most important is the privacy level settings of their FB accounts. Not sure if FB forces accounts for those under 14 into private or not (Myspace used to). But if their accounts were set to private (as they should have been) then this is NOT libel. These statements need to be made in public for them to be considered libel. When their privacy is set to max the said conversation amounts to little more than a few preteens sitting around in their bedroom on a 3-way call bitching and moaning about their teacher – wrong, but no harm done because it was a private conversation. If caught it’s something the parents should handle… End of story.

However if their accounts are set to public (which is unfortunately the case for most adults on FB) then yes that definitely qualifies as libel and their punishment should be what it is or worse.

The principal on the other hand, regardless of the above, was WAY out of line. Accessing someone’s FB private account the way she did is HIGHLY unethical and in no way what-so-ever like looking at a notebook (like someone compared it to above). The student had every right to deny the principal access to it and failed to excercise that right. FB is an off campus activity and she had no right to access it. The fact that she had to have the student login right there sounds to me like the accounts were set to private.

The final thing is I have to even wonder why a middle-school library gives students access to Facebook – it should be blocked.

If I were that teacher, I would not hesitate to mete out strong punishment. I don’t think they should be sent away or expelled but they definitely should be made accountable for their actions and punished for their behaviour. Children MUST be made aware that with free speech comes responsibility and that libel and other forms of social online bullying etc is wrong. They don’t hesitate to tear each other apart on Facebook and other stupid social networking sites. Now they have gone too far and someone has stepped in to show them the error of their ways – and about time, too! Rape and pedophillia are very serious accusations and you ought to think how you would feel if that were your professional and personal reputation that these irresponsible little dickheads were playing around with. The parents should be brought to account also for not not teaching them better moral behavior and allowed to run riot online without proper supervision.

“The principal on the other hand, regardless of the above, was WAY out of line. Accessing someone’s FB private account the way she did is HIGHLY unethical and in no way what-so-ever like looking at a notebook (like someone compared it to above). The student had every right to deny the principal access to it and failed to excercise that right. FB is an off campus activity and she had no right to access it. The fact that she had to have the student login right there sounds to me like the accounts were set to private.”

This is 12 year olds we’re talking about here. They are of an age where if they have something to hide, it’s probably something nefarious. I think that under the circumstances, the teacher had every right to make the pupil log on to their account and read those messages. The police wouldn’t hesitate. Why should teachers? They can’t even so much as touch a pupil these days, without the little bastards falsly calling “rape” or there being some ridiculous claim to ‘human rights’ etc. Teachers now have lost their authority in the classroom, which is why they are growing up without any respect and doing things like this.

You’re right the analogy is shitty and wrong but hey this is internets.

I just have a huge problem with any authority figure that does not have a badge forcing someone to reveal personal information that is password protected, unlike a notebook.

Oh and I keep very personal information in my underwear.

@DV: Regardless of whether they have anything to hide or not the principal was still out of line. Even law enforcement officials require a sopena to access FB data, a school principal doesn’t have that sort of authority PERIOD.

And yes they are NOT allowed to touch students under any circumstances unless physical contact is required as part of the class (ie: gymnastic and physical education where training under a controlled environment is required for the safety of the student).

And when the parents don’t do their job, how do the teachers stop those kids from ruining school for everyone else? The reason schools are a mess today is because of this attitude that let’s children getaway with this crap.

If that notebook is on the person, on school property, then sure — I could see my way toward insisting to see it and/or confiscating it.

On the other hand, what is said online in private conversation (obviously private, since the principal forced the kid to log on so she could read it) is quite different — it is a pretty CLEAR violation and a long step over the principal’s authority.

Only in some cases does the need for security in a school trump the protection of a child’s rights. Again, a far cry between a notebook on school property, and a PRIVATE facebook account.

It is NOT within a teacher or principal’s authority to force a child to login to any kind of communication network to see what was written about them. To endorse that position is all too Orwellian.

No wonder we live in an age where the rights of citizens means so little — after all, they’re taught in schools where security trumps privacy, there exists no real free speech or expression, and searches of a student’s locker and personal property are all too common.

The ONLY thing I agree with — is that this child shouldn’t be on facebook with no supervision.

Then boot them out of public school, send them to a “troubled youth” or military school. Enforcing discipline and teaching it are two different things. Parents need to stop being lazy and start taking responsibility for teaching their kids how to be decent human beings. That is not the schools job. We send our kids to school for an education not to learn discipline. That starts at home. The school should enforce the discipline but not teach it. Teaching your child to respect authority and adults starts and ends at home not in school.

This attitude is not the cause of the problem, lazy parenting is. Parents who blame the school system or other parents because they don’t want the school disciplining their children are externalizing their own laziness and trying to place the blame anywhere else except themselves.

And yes I can say that because I AM a parent myself and I take responsibility for my child’s actions.

So you’re saying that we should let people do whatever they want as long as it’s not the worst possible scenario? I suppose you think burglary and rape crimes shouldn’t be investigated cause, hey! People out there are doing worse!

The idea that these students feel it’s okay to call someone a pedophile and a rapist – if it isn’t true – shows they ARE troubled. If you feel that this is what’s going on all over the place, then holy crap, the youths of today are in a serious crisis.

People bitch about their teachers, sure. But there is a huge difference between saying a teacher is a jerk when you’re alone at home with your friends and calling your teacher a rapist on a semi-public forum. A HUGE difference. And if these kids can’t tell the difference then they are troubled.

From what I understand she had to log in to *delete* the post and comments.

From what I understand she had to log in to *delete* the post and comments.

A private notebook doesn’t potentially have hundreds of viewers, and statements like these can easily ruin a person’s career. Basically, not punishing these kids or making them see the error of their ways is opening the door for blackmail and needs to be shut down immediately. I remember a student once threatening to blow up my car my first year teaching after correcting some inappropriate behavior in class. I calmly informed him that I would gladly send him to the office and find another teacher to watch my class while I called his parents and the police. Never had another problem.
Endorsing this kind of behavior in any way is asking for trouble down the line. You want this kid as a boss someday?

Unfortunately booting a kid is harder than you’d think. :-/ I saw a student physically assault two other students and attempt to assault others (they were throwing large pieces of equipment). The teacher wasn’t allows to restrain the student and when campus security showed up they weren’t allowed to touch the student either. We had to watch for two hours while the student destroyed our classroom because no one was allowed to restrain them under the school’s guidelines (no one was themselves under immediate physical threat). Two days later the student was back in the classroom.

Also – this was at COLLEGE, where it should be MUCH easier to boot students. Unfortunately, when a student complains, the parents usually back them, and then someone higher up usually backs the parents.

We need more information for this discussion to go any further.

There is a huge difference between a kid saying

“I hate that paedophile cunt bag rapist teacher douche” and “This teacher is a paedophile, he raped my balls yesterday”

One is juvenile, the other malicious.

@K: College?! Now THAT is sad. College students are not minors and the professors should be allowed to restrain students until security arrives. And sounds like a lot of witnesses too. At the very least they should have been arrested.

Like I stated above, restraint SHOULD be one of the few times contact IS allowed as long as it’s done with necessary and appropriate force only, especially in the case of middle school and elementary aged children. We’re talking restraint here though not a wack across the knuckles with ruler old school style.

I’m not aware of that, Sir. According to their Terms under Registration and Account Security, number 5 states that “You will not use Facebook if you’re under 13.”

Even if what you said is true, that you can sign up under the age of 14 with consent, that should only cover signups for 13-14 year olds, but that doesn’t imply that 12 year olds and below are eligible to register.

Insulting a teacher is not an offence usually punishable by sending students to an alternative school. Sorry teachers. Smoking pot on school grounds and having sex in the bathroom is more like it. HUGE difference between the two.

Having said that, claiming the teacher is a rapist or pedophile is serious, and the teacher should consider taking the students/their parents to court over slander. The principal and school board had no business sticking their nose in it though.

Right on for the most part. We just don’t have enough information on this case. You’re right, the principal and school board need to steer clear of this. If anything this is a possible slander case against the teacher who should have filed a report with the police who would have investigated the case using due process. Note however it’s only slander or libel if it’s publicly stated. Posting on FB as a minor where only people on your friends list can see it is not considered public.

Even then they’d have to have called him out personally. Something like “My 3rd period teacher keeps accidentally touching my breasts, he such a rapist pedophile.” as opposed to something like “Mr. Fondlemeup in 3rd Period at Chapel Hill Middle School of Atlanta, GA touched my boobs again, he’s such a rapist pedophile.” is a WHOLE lot different. But even the later could be protected if the account was private and amongst Friended people on FB only.

My apologies to Mr.Fondlemeup if he’s a real person, this was only an example an not a real accusation ;-)

This is entering into the wiretaps debate territory: No one wants their emails and phone conversations secretly recorded, until someone prevents something dangerous because of it.

You don’t write your name on the elastic on the back?

Considering this kid is a 12 or 13-year-old honor student, and 12 or 13-year-olds do stupid things all the time, I don’t think this really has any weight on whether or not she’ll make a good boss 20 or 30 years from now.

From the story being reported, the girl readily admitted she was simply angry and called the teacher a negative name, basically your first example.

Personally, I don’t think the teacher should act unless the Facebook post actively disrupted the teacher’s life in some way, other than the parent-teacher meetings. If the teacher’s quality of life is now less, then yes, maybe said teacher should take some sort of action. The teacher is still employed at the school, hasn’t had to register as a sex offender, isn’t being reported as a pedophile, etc.

The kid shouldn’t have done that, but keep in mind, the kid is 12 and made a post on Facebook which she immediately retracted when asked to. If calling someone a pedophile on the Internet then owning up to it and removing said comment directly after requires harsh punishment for a 12-year-old, I mean, most of the world’s population would’ve suffered some pretty harsh punishments back when they were 12.

And if the teacher ends up dead because of a thoughtless post by an temporarily angry teenager, would that be sufficient disruption of the teacher’s life?

Kid’s parents will be very lucky if it ends there. Because slanders are actionable offenses and when a child commits such an offense, the parent’s can be sued. Parents would be very, very stupid to try to “defend” child’s actions by initiating lawsuit.
Child needs to be disenrolled from Facebook a year or two until they mature enough to use it properly.
Free speech has it’s limits. And those limits are where a person is defamed. Facebook is not private conversation. It is publication.

Again, it’s similar to the wiretap thing. No one wants their life secretly monitored until said secret monitoring does something positive.

Didn’t this whole thing happen in Mean Girls, anyway, minus the Facebook bit? How did Tina Fey and Tim Meadows handle it?

Was it an open account that anyone one the internet could read, or was it a “private” account were you had to be friends/family to read? This makes a big difference on if it was a big problem or not. Are we going to start expelling kids for talking bad about their teachers to their friends after school? What would have happened if this student had met up with friends on the weekend and said this?

There are many adults who do not know how to use privacy. That principal is one of them, should they too be denied it? Kids do have to take responsibility. And there are laws in place in this country for situations like this. Instead of the school taking it upon itself to correct the problem, let the teacher take it to the courts. But instead of fixing the problem, and answering the question of if the guy is one or not, they have a situation where the guy not only looks like a pedo, but the principal is working with him to hide it.

How about we make use out of the law for slander that already exist and let the courts/police work it out. That way they could prove that the guy is actually innocent, rather then having the school look like they are covering it up.

Yep, lets get the courts involved rather then the school. At least then the answer of if the guy is or is not is answered by the authorities.

It’s not slander because it wasn’t intended to ruin a career; it was a 13 year old, making a comment on Facebook, not claiming rape. I don’t call that career damaging at all.

Free speech has no limits, especially when not malicious AND not on school property. It’s just a 13 year old who made a stupid comment and removed it. That’s not near slander at all. And forcing a student to log into Facebook isn’t nearly comparable to a notebook at all because all of the comments were obviously public to begin with…

The only problem I have with this argument is that we are talking about children, minors, under the age of 18, not adults. I completely support privacy for people over the age of 18.

My belief is that when you drop your child off at school, you are bestowing upon that school and its personell the ability to oversee, discipline, manage, etc your child as you would in the absence of a parent. Thus, if as a parent you would not ask your child to log into their FB account to tell them to stop calling a neighbor a pedophile, then I would expect that you would not want a school supervisor doing that either. But, if you found out your child was doing this and you told your own child to log in and remove something, then you are giving that permission to the school when you place your child in their hands. They are not babysitters, they are educators, just as parents are (supposed to be!).

I think its simple. Under 18 = no voting, no drinking, no driving, no marriage, no cigarette buying, no military service, no credit cards, no rated R movies (17), etc. (I know there are obvious exceptions to these, but for most this is the case)

Aka, a minor. Human rights are in tact but privacy and trust are rights a child earns and learns, not given(until 17/18 ish). This case shows why.

This is one of the reasons our education system is in the toilet. Kids don’t respect teachers because parents want to strip away any authority the teachers have. Teachers should have the same parental power in the absence of a parent. Otherwise, kids understand that teachers have no real power and kids will disrespect their teachers, ignore them, and generally just see them as a nuisance to be ignored, not an elder to be listened to.

I believe in freedom of speech until someone cries out “Fire!” in a room full of people and someone gets hurt as a result of panic. What this student did was reprehensible and in some ways irreparable. Falsely accusing someone of sexual crimes regardless of the context is definitely ‘below the belt’. It’s hard to get rid of that stigma. Why though did the principal act irrationally toward the accused student? This only helps the student’s case (somewhat).

The students should be removed from the school permanently. The charge of “pedophile” and “rapist” sticks and can cause lifelong damage to the teacher. I worked with a teacher who was falsely accused and that good man is now out of education. Even though the PSC investigation revealed that the 14 year old girls had lied, he had to endure a police investigation, suspended from his school, whispers of his neighbors, and eventually the girls got a slap on the wrist. We lost a competent, fair black male teacher at an inner-city school where black male role models are desperately needed because of a lie. During the investigation, his wife also a teacher suffered severe anxiety and depression. The accusation was front page news but the resolution of the girls lying was never put in the newspaper.

Throw the book at them. They have obviously not been taught moral behavior at home.

Several things strike me about the chain above:
Password: There seems to be a lot of concern around the fact that access to a Facebook account requires a password. Well, a locker requires a lock, but if a school authority has reasonable reason to believe something dangerous or in violation of school policy is in the locker, the school authority has the right to open the locker. A password is just an online lock – it is not inviolable.

Free Speech: The school systems have rules and regulations that specifically prohibit the actions these little twits, and the First Amendment is not, as many believe, sacrosanct. You can’t yell “fire” in a crowded theater, and you can’t run around calling someone a pedophile just cause you feel like it. The right to free speech does not superseded someone else’s right to live free from false accusations or harassment.

Facebook Privacy: As too many have found out the hard way, Facebook is never truly private. While someone above made the observation that you can make your settings private instead of public, set your privacy settings as high as they will go, etc. apparently it wasn’t enough, otherwise the principal would not have known about it. Prove positive that no matter what the girl’s FB settings are, her FB posts “got out”.

Rule number one in our digital world: there is no such thing as a “secret” once you hit Enter.

Privacy: Children are ill-equipped to handle the responsibilities that go along with the rights to privacy. Unfortunately adults, most of whom were growing up just as the digital age was taking off, are ill-equipped to foresee the issues our children are going to have to address. Mom and Dad probably worry more about how a real pedophile can get to the little darlings instead of how the little darlings can wreck havoc themselves.

I think this case is an indicator that 13 may be too young for Facebook, at least unsupervised. My suggestion to Facebook is that under some age, the FB account must be liked to someone over 21 with monitoring ability.

Perhaps if an adult had been in a position to oversee the activity, s/he could have yanked the post early on and explained why that sort of thing wasn’t appropriate. Delete quickly, no harm, no foul, lesson learned.

Last: the question of one person’s right to digital privacy vs. another person’s right to identify the source of damaging digital action is one that the courts all over the democratic world are struggling with, and few have adequate laws in place to address the issue. Add a minor into the equation and it gets even stickier.

I disagree.  The thing is, parents these days refuse to parent.  It used to be that if you got in trouble, you were in WORSE trouble at home.  Who’s to say that if you leave something like this up to the parent, they won’t just be on their kid’s side so as not to piss their kid off?  Parents these days seem pretty concerned with being their child’s friend.  I agree with the consensus that a teacher or principal needs to be in charge of managing a child’s behavior in the absence of their parent (especially because the parent is absent from their child’s life for at LEAST 7 hours out of the day during school).

Furthermore, calling a teacher a pedophile or rapist is a very serious threat to that teacher, whether the statement is made privately or not.  The problem is that even if the facebook account is set to “private,” the general “public” that is friends with that child can still view what the child has written.  Social media is like flame propellent.  Something innocent very quickly becomes volatile and dangerous. Children need to be made aware that as minors, they do not have the same rights as adults, and therefore cannot assume that they will not be held accountable for breaching such parameters.  This is not only the duty of the parent, but teachers as well.  Children to not have the same rights to free speech, and even if they did, libel in any public forum (and yes, even a private facebook account is public in some facets) is illegal and unethical.  That principal did what they believed to be the right thing to do, and went to bat for the teacher.  As a teacher, I would want to know that my principal had my back in this situation.

I disagree.  The thing is, parents these days refuse to parent.  It used to be that if you got in trouble, you were in WORSE trouble at home.  Who’s to say that if you leave something like this up to the parent, they won’t just be on their kid’s side so as not to piss their kid off?  Parents these days seem pretty concerned with being their child’s friend.  I agree with the consensus that a teacher or principal needs to be in charge of managing a child’s behavior in the absence of their parent (especially because the parent is absent from their child’s life for at LEAST 7 hours out of the day during school).

Furthermore, calling a teacher a pedophile or rapist is a very serious threat to that teacher, whether the statement is made privately or not.  The problem is that even if the facebook account is set to “private,” the general “public” that is friends with that child can still view what the child has written.  Social media is like flame propellent.  Something innocent very quickly becomes volatile and dangerous. Children need to be made aware that as minors, they do not have the same rights as adults, and therefore cannot assume that they will not be held accountable for breaching such parameters.  This is not only the duty of the parent, but teachers as well.  Children to not have the same rights to free speech, and even if they did, libel in any public forum (and yes, even a private facebook account is public in some facets) is illegal and unethical.  That principal did what they believed to be the right thing to do, and went to bat for the teacher.  As a teacher, I would want to know that my principal had my back in this situation.

That’s where ur wrong. Facebook is PRIVATE! Ever wonder why facebook doesnt’t allow you to look at anyone’s profile unless you’re logged in and are they’re friend and they’ve approved of you?!?!?!!! And no! The school would have no right to look in said “notebook.” even if it did have that gun crap in there, they still would have no right obviously cuz they wouldnt know about any of it!!!!

”
especially when not malicious AND not on school property. It’s just a 13 year old who made a stupid comment and removed it.”

You’re only right about the not on school property part. This was an extremely cold, thoughtless and unfair thing to do to an innocent person. As everyone else here points out, this kind of thing ruins a teacher’s career and destroys their lives. Kids are old enough at 13 to understand the consequences of their actions and need to stop.

Freedom of speech defnitely has limits. Only people who are unfamiliar with the way our court systems work would think it doesn’t. The first Amendment protects our right to say what we want but not the consequences of what we say. People have definitely been arrested for saying the wrong things and need to understand the power their words have and the consequences they hold.

My daughter has just been excluded for one week for wriring that her teacher is a c*** on facebook. This teacher has been victimising her for over 6 months and the headteacher has refused toi do anything about it she was just venting her frustration to her friends the teacher knew nothing about it until a police officer decided to do a check on her facebook account for no reason