Does A School District Have This Authority?

School District Passes Blog Rules Changes

In a move that has drawn national attention to this Lake County school district, the Community High School District 128 board unanimously passed rules changes Monday night that will hold students accountable for what they post on blogs and social-networking Web sites.

For Libertyville and Vernon Hills High Schools, the changes will mean that all students participating in extracurricular activities, including athletic teams, fine arts groups and school clubs, will have to sign a pledge agreeing that evidence of "illegal or inappropriate" behavior posted on the Internet could be grounds for disciplinary action.

My first question is when did the school district become a law enforcement agency, judge, jury and executioner for what students do outside of school? My second question is what does this new set of rules do to the role of parents in determining what is and is not acceptable behavior and activities for their own children? My third question is how does the school district garner the authority to essentially place a chilling effect on the free speech rights of these students, including a prior restriction on speech, a premise that has been totally rejected by one Supreme Court precedent after another. My last question is what is inapparopriate and who gets to determine that standard?

Will a student that voices an opinion about the school, its administration, the elected school board, or even a particular teacher be punished? I can see room for concern over the manner in which such oinions are expressed, especially in terms of mere gossip, libel and/or defamation, but such an overly broad and vague set of rules seems to be unconstitutional ab initio.

Officials of District 128, which includes the two schools [Libertyville High School and Vernon Hills High School], said about 80 percent of the district's 3,200 students participate in one or more extracurricular activities.

Associate Supt. Prentiss Lea said the changes are part of an effort to get the district community more knowledgeable about the growing Internet blog phenomenon and more aware of the pitfalls of such sites as MySpace.com.

Okay, my next question is hasn't the school district just defamed the operators of MySpace.Com? As far as I know, the operators of MySpace have done nothing illegal, have not promoted the exploitation or victimization of children, and have done nothing illegal or immoral by providing the services that they offer. Indeed, the onus falls upon the teens and the parents of those teens to assure that their conduct on MySpace is safe and appropriate. How then does the school board assume the role of parent, police officer and social critic of MySpace? And are not those supposed pitfalls the same pitfalls of using a chat room, a MUD, an online game, any web site that calls for registering the user, instant messaging and e-mail? How then can they claim that it is MySpace that is the cause or basis of these pitfalls?

"By adding the blog sites [to the student codes of conduct], we wanted to raise discussions on the issue," he said. "We have taken the first steps to starting that conversation."

Word of the changes had stirred discussion in the district among parents and students.

Some contend that the new codes of conduct will reinforce that students are accountable for the information they post online. But others, including one mother who spoke at the meeting, argue that monitoring students' online postings is an invasion of privacy. Lake Bluff resident Mary Greenberg, the only person to speak during the public comment period, told officials that the district is overstepping its bounds.

As parents, "we have to watch what they're doing," said Greenberg, who has a son at Libertyville High. "I don't think they need to police what students are doing online. That's my job."

Amen Sister Greenberg! If the blog is not a sponsored school activity, the school has no jurisdiction or legal standing. If a student commits a tort against the school or a member of the school faculty, administration, staff or board, then they can pursue the matter through the generally available legal processes. This is just plain wrong!

District officials will not regularly surf students' sites for rules violations, officials said. But they will monitor them if they get some indication—specifically, a tip from another student, a parent or a community member—pointing them in that direction.

School administrators would treat incriminating information found on the Web the same as they would any other evidence of wrongdoing, as pieces of a larger investigation into the offending behavior.

So now we are teaching our students that Big Bother is watching them at all levels, that it is their role to be thought police, and that the school has police and judicial authority. This smells really offal, er, awful.

The new pledge will be used in all activities for the next school year, including those that start over the coming summer break, Lea said.

In the pledge, which both students and their parents must sign, the students agree that they won't use alcohol, tobacco or drugs or "exhibit gross misconduct or behavior/citizenship that is considered detrimental to his/her team or school."

The code of conduct states that "maintaining or being identified on a blog site which depicts illegal or inappropriate behavior will be considered a violation of this code."

While these are commendable values, they are not within the purview of the school when such activities are engaged in outside of school activities, school-sponsored events or off-campus.

A committee of about 30 parents, teachers and administrators devised the changes this year in response to the growing popularity of such sites as MySpace and news reports of adults preying on teens via the Internet.

While the victimization of children is a legitimate concern, we need to employ education and community awareness, not engage in creating an environment where Gestapo, KGB or secret surveillance and confidential informants are used to restrict free speech.

Sites like MySpace, Xanga.com and friendster.com allow users to create a Web site where they can post pictures and information about themselves and communicate with other users.

Lea rebuffed criticism that officials are going beyond their authority.

"The concept that searching a blog site is an invasion of privacy is almost an oxymoron," he said. "It is called the World Wide Web."

Perhaps the invasion of privacy comment is correct, but the policy of the Community School District 128 is most assuredly a violation of basic civil liberties, an unwarranted invasion of parental rights and authority, and completely outside of the jurisdiction, authority and legal standing of the district.

I hope the folks at the Illinois ACLU are listening.