posted by Mike Madison at 3:10 PM /
This week's Almanac has a long story about the basketball incident. Joey David and the School District confirm the reason why no discipline was imposed on boys who attended a party where a number of students were cited by police for drinking: The incident didn't occur on school grounds.
That made me think: If "school property" or "school grounds" is the key concept, why was Shane Phillips disciplined for sending an inappropriate email to the coach? Did Shane use a school computer? Did the coach read the email on a school computer or using a school-supplied email address? If the email was personal-account-to-personal-account, then wasn't that email, too, something that didn't take place on school property?
Even if a school computer or school email account was used, that's a pretty flimsy pretext for the discipline. The problem wasn't inappropriate use of a school computing resource; the problem was the content of the message -- and the content was inappropriate regardless of where Shane or the coach was sitting, and regardless of what email account either one was using. The discipline was appropriate because of what the student did, not because of where he did it. For some reason, that rationale doesn't apply to the other students.
Am I missing something?
I'll post a link when The Almanac posts the story online. Right now, I can't find it.
http://www.thealmanac.net/ALM/Story/ML_Disipline
That made me think: If "school property" or "school grounds" is the key concept, why was Shane Phillips disciplined for sending an inappropriate email to the coach? Did Shane use a school computer? Did the coach read the email on a school computer or using a school-supplied email address? If the email was personal-account-to-personal-account, then wasn't that email, too, something that didn't take place on school property?
Even if a school computer or school email account was used, that's a pretty flimsy pretext for the discipline. The problem wasn't inappropriate use of a school computing resource; the problem was the content of the message -- and the content was inappropriate regardless of where Shane or the coach was sitting, and regardless of what email account either one was using. The discipline was appropriate because of what the student did, not because of where he did it. For some reason, that rationale doesn't apply to the other students.
Am I missing something?
http://www.thealmanac.net/ALM/Story/ML_Disipline
Labels: basketball, character education, school district, sports
5 Comments:
Discipline in our school district is not consistant. It all depends on gender, sport, connections, legal representation, location and... who is your daddy.
There is a huge difference. You can't punish them for what they do off of school grounds. The parents should have pulled them off of the team in my opinion.
That is different from sending an email containing swear words to an adult. Even if it wasn't done on a school computer, it was sent to a district employee. They are 2 totally dofferent things.
While I agree too often who you are and what your daddy does comes into play too often in Mt. Lebanon, this is one time I agree.
I don't agree with the underage drinking. The parents should have dealt with that, though.
I'm not defending the email. I'm just questioning the policy. The school district says: school grounds is the dividing line. What happens at home is for the parents or others to evaluate. Sending an email -- even an email to the personal email address of a district employee -- doesn't and didn't happen on school grounds.
Line-drawing here is extremely difficult; my point is that it's much more complicated than the Mt. Lebanon policy recognizes. There's a case in the U.S. Supreme Court right now -- "Bong Hits for Jesus" case -- that raises this question. Take a look at this report.
Is the basketball coach a district employee?
Two great opinions were expressed in the editorials in the Almanac this week regarding this mess. If a boy from Mt. Lebanon was coming to take my daughter out on a date...I'd hope she would pick Shane Phillips over all of the others.
I just read the latest edition of the Almanac newspaper and cannot beleive the editorial written by a "Mt. Lebanon adult?" Just when you think things have been swept under the rug...another parent comes out of nowhere to pity the poor boys caught drinking and make Shane Phillips look like the bad guy. This, my friends, is one of the reasons our school is in a state of chaos.
Post a Comment
<< Home