Social networking websites create host of problems for schools

While there is little school administrators can do to discipline these students who post inappropriate material or engage in “cyberbullying,” they can address the problem though policies and education.

At a town meeting on social networking at NSBA’s 20th annual Technology + Learning Conference earlier this month in Dallas, Hemanshu Nigam, chief security officer of My­Space, said his company is adding new security features.

Boasting 127 million users and adding roughly 330,000 more each day, MySpace is the most popular social networking site.

The new safety features reduce the number of threats to users and provide online safety education tools to parents, teenagers, and educators. MySpace is trying to get ahead of the problem, Nigam said. “Businesses don’t want to align themselves with a community that isn’t safe. So it makes sense from a business perspective and it’s just the right thing to do.”

“On some level there has to be a level of parenting, interaction, and supervision,” he said. “Some of the answer lies not with technology but with education and guidance to students.”

“Kids are going to be kids, and they are going to get themselves in a situation they can’t handle,” said Sgt. Byron Fassett, head of the child exploitation squad at the Dallas Police Department. Instead of being barred from websites or having their computer use limited, children should be taught the right way to use technology, he said.

During an online chat on social networking websites hosted by NSBA Nov. 8, attorney Kimberly L. Jessie said schools must see a “substantial disruption” in their educational environment before they can take action against students who bully or make ostracizing comments against other students, teachers, or school staff.

“Even if [school officials] find something offensive or disturbing, they cannot take any disciplinary action against students until there is a substantial disruption on campus,” said Jessie, an associate at the Dallas law firm Bracewell Giuliani.

She advised school board members and staff not to monitor websites such as MySpace because of that lack of authority.

Districts should adopt policies -- using the same language as recent court cases -- to inform parents and students that they can be disciplined when their speech and actions outside of school become disruptive during the school day, she said. Policies should also forbid the use of school computers for personal use, and administrators can block access to MySpace, Facebook, Xanga, and similar sites.

Cyber-bullying, where a student is targeted through a wide range of media, such as websites, e-mails, or text-messaging, can dramatically affect the student’s attendance, academic performance, and overall well being.

Jessie cited court cases where teachers or students were physically threatened and schools were justified in taking precautions.

Another situation that held up under court scrutiny involved a student who created an off-color parody of his school’s principal. Although the website was created outside of school, so many students tried to access the web page during school hours that the school had to shut down its computer system for five days.

Students can face criminal charges when their speech constitutes a true threat -- meaning that cyber-bullying or harassment must also have evidence of intent to carry out a harmful action, Jessie said. And schools also can take action if, for instance, a student uses a school computer or brings a printed copy of a web page to school to make threats.

But there was one court ruling where a school was not allowed to intervene in a case involving a student who posted a website urging readers to “stab someone for no reason and then set them on fire.” In that case, the court found the students’ sinister thoughts did not seem to interfere with his school.

According to a survey of attendees at the T+L Conference, 36 percent of school of respondents said the content of student postings on social networking websites, such as MySpace, is disruptive to the learning environment. The biggest problem, cited by 70 percent, is that students post inappropriate material.

Almost 35 percent said their district has a policy that covers social websites. After examining the responses, that policy appears to be, for the most part, a firewall, blocking software, or a rule forbidding access to these sites when using school computers.