Girl, 12, 'interrogated' by school staff until she gives up Facebook password

[prayers4missing]

Issue #1 she made a facebook comment about a mean monitor
Issue #2 she tried calling out a student for getting her into trouble re: issue 1
Issue #3 a parent made a compliant re: sexual comments made in a facebook message

Being pulled into the principals office was not just because of a comment about a mean monitor, it was about 3 separate facebook issues. moo

ETA - this situation isn't just because she called a monitor mean. To me IMO this shows that she has an attitude of not following the rules. Whatever the facebook rules are, she obviously knew after her punishment from the first incident that she shouldn't make those mistakes again. But instead she took right back to facebook to try and call someone out, bullying someone perhaps. moo

 

[Jack]

This was taken directly out of the article, it says this happened after the incident and she continues to post. I have a feeling this little girl is a trouble maker and I am sure the judge will see right through her. The court will probable recommend counseling, which I think the whole family needs. JMO.

She might well be a trouble maker, or she might just be today's 'norm'. A lot of kids these days have a lack of self control, have potty mouths, and are commonly rude. And those are the cheerleaders!! It seems my generation hasn't done a great job at teaching their children to behave. Understand I'm not talking about everyone, but having a kid who just graduated from HS recently and being heavily involved in some aspects of that, I think most parents would be shocked at how their kids behave outside of their presence, even in the presence of other adults.

I can also say as someone who has spent time around teachers, school staff, and other parents that you might be shocked to hear how they talk about the kids. There is no doubt in my mind that schools' staff picks their favorites and also picks their whipping boys (and girls). Again, I'm not saying every teacher bullies or every staff member takes their frustrations out on the unlucky few, but it does happen and probably more often than you would think.

So I am not surprised that a 12 year old can pick up on not being liked and being treated in a 'mean' way. And I'm not surprised that the school administration crossed a line. I think what bothers me the most is that by punishing this girl for something that was said off campus, and while she was presumably in the care of her parents, they seem to be indicating they want to keep her from speaking up about how she feels she is being treated by someone in authority. Like they want to hush up anything negative toward them instead of caring for the well being of the child. I don't know about the rest of you but I put a great amount of effort into teaching my child that if ANYONE made them feel uncomfortable in any way it should be told in any way and to anyone they felt comfortable speaking to about it. I am uncomfortable that a school administration would try to keep a child from speaking up any way they felt comfortable doing so. It isn't as though she was making up elaborate lies intended to slander, she was speaking of how she felt and what she felt was happening to her. Why is there anything wrong with that? I don't know, maybe I'm missing something here but them making such a fuss about it makes me wonder what it is they are trying to hide.

If the girl is just a trouble maker though I would think a harmless facebook post would be better than spray painting a slur on the staff member's car or on the wall of the bathroom or something.

 

[jjenny]

This twelve year old girl, regardless of anything else, has a right to her opinion just as you and I do.

MOO

Well she doesn't have a right to express it on facebook because she has to be 13.

 

[legalmania]

Well she doesn't have a right to express it on facebook because she has to be 13.

Then she wanted to know who turned her in. Somebody obviously turned her in to begin with, I doubt if the principal has time to go through all the students names trying to figure out what their facebook id is. Then another student turned her in for some sex conversation she was having. I just get the feeling this child is not well liked, I could be wrong, but being around kids as much as I have I usually can feel somethings not right. I wonder if the attorneys will tell her she needs to stop and just respect authority for now. When you're respectful to others you usually get respect back.

 

[legalmania]

I found a new version of the story. It explains a little more than the other story.

http://redtape.msnbc.msn.com/_news/...-to-demand-middle-schoolers-facebook-password

 

[Paulette]

Gee...I don't remember having any rights when I was 12. I had duties. Like to parents, authority figures, school, etc. And so did my kids.

I can just see my mom, mortified that I'd written anything derogatory about an adult. But, back in my day, adults behaved like adults - didn't pander to us and we respected them.

So, I don't believe the girl had any right to privacy on a facebook acct. that she shouldn't have in the 1st place! She obviously was turned in to the school by one of her friends that didn't like what she was saying.

What if the little dear brought a gun & shot the hall monitor?

 

[Donjeta]

What my problem with RS is that she continued to post after she was so traumatized. Also she was talking about a staff member so I still believe they had a right to question her and see what she wrote, to make sure she didn't have violent tendencies.

Please post the quote where it says that she continued to post after she was traumatized by the interrogation in which she was reduced to tears and forced to give up her passwords.


Millions of schoolchildren talk about the school staff every single day. It is not imo reasonable or right to subject them all to a LE interrogation because of it. Treating children like criminals for saying they don't like an adult at their school probably does nothing to make them respect and like them any better in the future.


Quoting Paulette:

What if the little dear brought a gun & shot the hall monitor?

I am extremely uncomfortable with all the insinuations that a twelve year old should be treated as a future shooter candidate just because they expressed negative feelings about something that happened at school.

She shouldn't have had a FB account but it's a separate issue from shooting anybody. AFAIK there are no studies showing that under age children who had FB accounts are more likely to become school shooters.

For all we know she's just a kid who got mad at her hall monitor and she could be further traumatized if she is stigmatized as a school shooter. We have no information that she has ever been violent. Saying someone is mean does not equal a threat.

If a child *is* a potential school shooter, this isn't the way to go either. Treating them like that will probably just give them more adults to be mad at and more targets for when they decide to go on the rampage. I would suggest that psychiatric treatment, CPS interventions, alternative school arrangements, getting appropriate court orders for any search and seizure operations such as investigating their online activities are more helpful than intimidating a tearful child to give up their passwords.

 

[marauder]

Since she is only 12, she shouldn't be on facebook to begin with.

Agreed. By that age they should be running their own Apache server and have access to proxies. Facebook is more for technically illiterate kids.

 

[angelmom]

I found a new version of the story. It explains a little more than the other story.

http://redtape.msnbc.msn.com/_news/...-to-demand-middle-schoolers-facebook-password

Yes, this makes it much clearer that the school violated several rules on grounds that were less than an immediate safety issue.

 

[Gardenlady]

Good grief. I have to say I really am tickled by the "kids these days are so terrible/disrespectful/potty mouthed!" When I was a teen back in the late 80s/early 90s, I can CLEARLY remember having a potty mouth (in fact, it was such a potty mouth that I still have trouble breaking myself of the habit of letting rip a stream of expletives at times :innocent: ), talking about how we hated certain teachers, and lots and lots of SEX talk (gasp!). The only difference from now is that we didn't have social media to post it on - though I'm sure if we did have it, we would have done so (and in fact, those of us who used to be on BBSs and usenet before the web went widespread DID talk about it online, there just wasn't such a huge audience lol).

This girl has done nothing threatening or out of the norm for someone her age. It's just ADULTS who are over reacting. If it were my daughter I would be furious with the admin, and if I felt we weren't getting an adequate response from the admin (an apology plus an assurance tha rules handling this kind of situation would be changed for future incidents) then I'd be contacting the ACLU also. :twocents:

 

[AnaTeresa]

Good grief. I have to say I really am tickled by the "kids these days are so terrible/disrespectful/potty mouthed!" When I was a teen back in the late 80s/early 90s, I can CLEARLY remember having a potty mouth (in fact, it was such a potty mouth that I still have trouble breaking myself of the habit of letting rip a stream of expletives at times :innocent: ), talking about how we hated certain teachers, and lots and lots of SEX talk (gasp!). The only difference from now is that we didn't have social media to post it on - though I'm sure if we did have it, we would have done so (and in fact, those of us who used to be on BBSs and usenet before the web went widespread DID talk about it online, there just wasn't such a huge audience lol).

This girl has done nothing threatening or out of the norm for someone her age. It's just ADULTS who are over reacting. If it were my daughter I would be furious with the admin, and if I felt we weren't getting an adequate response from the admin (an apology plus an assurance tha rules handling this kind of situation would be changed for future incidents) then I'd be contacting the ACLU also. :twocents:

Yup. I definitely went through a potty mouth phase as well - it's a mild and benign form of rebellion and asserting independence in kids and teenagers. I also had a big drama queen, persecution complex. That's called being a 12/13 year old girl.

 

[Kimberlyd125]

Yup. I definitely went through a potty mouth phase as well - it's a mild and benign form of rebellion and asserting independence in kids and teenagers. I also had a big drama queen, persecution complex. That's called being a 12/13 year old girl.

Very true!

Nothing this child did was criminal.

She didn't break any laws. She broke a rule made by Facebook about having an account at 12 but she didn't break any laws.

This school 100% overreacted. At most, a call home or reporting her account to FB due to her age should have occurred.

They bullied her. No other way to put it. If I found out my child was interrogated and forced to give private information without my knowledge, I would be LIVID!!!

I have a 14 year old daughter. I monitor her FB. Her daddy monitors her FB. It's OUR JOB. She's OUR child. The school has no right to her private information.

And what she posted is very mild compared to most posts by teens.

This school needs to learn a thing or two about how to handle kids IMO.

 

[EGirl]

Issue #1 she made a facebook comment about a mean monitor
Issue #2 she tried calling out a student for getting her into trouble re: issue 1
Issue #3 a parent made a compliant re: sexual comments made in a facebook message

Being pulled into the principals office was not just because of a comment about a mean monitor, it was about 3 separate facebook issues. moo

ETA - this situation isn't just because she called a monitor mean. To me IMO this shows that she has an attitude of not following the rules. Whatever the facebook rules are, she obviously knew after her punishment from the first incident that she shouldn't make those mistakes again. But instead she took right back to facebook to try and call someone out, bullying someone perhaps. moo

What do FB rules have to do with school? This should have been handled by the parents. School admins have no business spending this kind of time on what a child does outside of school. They should focus on EDUCATING.

Really a post about sex? A post about a mean hall monitor. This is what they are spending their time on?

 

[keeponsearching]

I think the school could of handled this better. Instead of asking for her password maybe ask why she posted it. And leave the rest to the parents. If the school wanted to, they could make up a rule about facebook.. Change things.

 

[Velouria]

It's a federal law that a 12 yr old can't be on a social media site. It's called COPPA. Link below. I would say that because she was addressing a staff member that they had a right to see if any threats were mentioned. She also continued to post after the initial punishment.

http://www.allfacebook.com/facebook-age-limit-2011-11

BBM

Then perhaps the school should have obtained a federal warrant and gone directly to Facebook instead of using Gestapo tactics on a child.

COPPA is designed to protect children and punish those who violate their privacy. I see nothing in the act that provides for prosecution of a minor who violates TOS.

 

[prayers4missing]

What do FB rules have to do with school? This should have been handled by the parents. School admins have no business spending this kind of time on what a child does outside of school. They should focus on EDUCATING.

Really a post about sex? A post about a mean hall monitor. This is what they are spending their time on?

I'm talking about the school rules regarding facebook. She was called in the first time and I believe she clearly knew she needed to stop but instead she went right back to facebook and tried to bully someone into admitting to getting her into trouble. The school admins are dealing with this because it was brought to THEM by either other children or parents. I have no doubt that the parents of this girl knew she had been called into the office and gotten into trouble regarding facebook. So when she was suspended what did her parents do about it then? NOTHING since after that she was having what another parent felt was an inappropriate sex conversation. MOO

 

[EGirl]

I'm talking about the school rules regarding facebook. She was called in the first time and I believe she clearly knew she needed to stop but instead she went right back to facebook and tried to bully someone into admitting to getting her into trouble. The school admins are dealing with this because it was brought to THEM by either other children or parents. I have no doubt that the parents of this girl knew she had been called into the office and gotten into trouble regarding facebook. So when she was suspended what did her parents do about it then? NOTHING since after that she was having what another parent felt was an inappropriate sex conversation. MOO

Why would a school have rules about FB? Are they allowing kids to access FB at school? If not, what a child is doing outside school is not their bsuiness. It shoul dbe handled by the parents and if any threats are being made, those should be addressed with LE. The school has no business in the middle of this.

 

[prayers4missing]

Actually I respectfully disagree. If I post something negative on facebook from home regarding my workplace I can be fired. There have been cases, it has happened. If a parent is bringing complaints of bullying or the like to the principal than what is the admin supposed to do? Ignore it because it happened at home? No they need to address it since obviously the parents aren't. MOO

 

[kgeaux]

What my problem with RS is that she continued to post after she was so traumatized. Also she was talking about a staff member so I still believe they had a right to question her and see what she wrote, to make sure she didn't have violent tendencies.

I don't think it is clear that she continued to post after the incident in which she was forced to give up her password.

Posting that someone is mean falls far short of a threat...and from the way the article reads, that post isn't why she was called into office. A parent complained that the 12 year old had a conversation about sex with her child.


The article does not say whether this parent tried to approach the girl's parents first, or if the conversation about sex also involved the school or school employees. It also says the girl's parents had given permission to the school to get the FB password......I am thinking that this was probably "generic" permission along the lines of forms parents sign at the beginning of school, because I don't see how the parent could give specific permission in regards to this incident, and then turn around and sue.

PRAYERS4MISSING, I thought I had quoted your post, but I must have screwed up something because it isn't showing up.

You are absolutely right that employers can and do monitor the FB pages of employees (and applicants, too) and they can impose consequences for negative posts.

What differs between that scenario and what happened with the 12 year old and the school is that she was forced to give up her password. An employer could NEVER force an employee to divulge her password so that they could access IM's, etc.

 

[annalia]

Now this has become a case of bullying? :waitasec:

The way I see it, the first time that she posted on fb that the hall monitor was mean is when the school went overboard. Did they bother to check to see if maybe this student really was being picked on?

If there were school rules that a student can't say on fb that a teacher/school employee is mean, they better get busy making sure every student hands in their password so they can keep tabs on all students outside of school.

Granted she shouldn't have had a fb account. Then when the school first heard that a 12 year old had a fb account, why didn't they just take steps to see that the account was closed?

I would be horrified if my daughter was talking about sex at 12, but there again, that isn't any reason for school officials to bring in LE and make a student hand over her password. That's a parent issue. Is the school going to get every other student's password to make sure none of them talk about sex?

The more I think and read about this the more clear it becomes just how out of line the school was.