The Status Update That Got A Student Expelled From School
April 4, 2010 by Terry Reth · 267 Comments
The Status Update That Got A Student Expelled From School – In High School, Myspace and social networking websites are used as serious tools for catching kids before they do something bad. More and more students are being punished by the school administration for things they do outside of school. It happens all the time. A student goes to a party and school administration finds out and suddenly they are suspended from school for what seems like to the student as a harmless fun time. They were just out having a good time with friends and family right? Well the school districts are seeing things in the eyes of the students and are in fact seeing things just the opposite and are beginning to crack down on students even more.
Could you imagine being expelled, yes expelled meaning you wont be able to re enroll in another school down the street, you will have to completely go into a different school district assuming they will accept you provided your prior school history, just for updating your status on Facebook? Sounds a bit wild no matter what your status said right? Well when you write in your status that you are going to kill your English teacher, things tend to get a bit more serious. That’s on the lines of creating a hit list people are saying. Kathy Bowen is his English teacher at school and she didn’t find the comment amusing to the slightest degree.
The student wrote that he was going to kill Kathy Bowen just because he did not like her and wasn’t thrilled by her personality. The Brevard County school district expelled the boy but still offered him the chance to go to an alternative school. Now police are looking further into the case.
OMG!!!!! You cant get expelled for something that didn’t happen in school hours!!!! the teachers shouldn’t even be aloud to add students!!! At the school that i go to the teachers dont add the students!! i CANT belive that!!! f*cking hell!!
Um, reality is that anything said can be assumed to be done.
If a student says they will kill someone, and a teacher finds out and no one shows any action, and they kill someone, whose to blame? Well, Y’know, it may be the most un-realistic situation ever- who would do that? But you always have to think of the possibilities…
I understand your point, but if every time a person threatened to do someone they done it there would be no teachers, politicians, parents, or people left alive in this world.
who would do that ya say…its happend numorous time… school shooting … duh..
okay even though he/she said that the teachers are NOTTT!!! aloud to add students as there friends on facebook they will get in trouble for it and come on like u never said ur going to kill some1 yeah thats hard to belive its just a saying of speach and the school board cant get u in trouble out of school cuz i got into a fight out of school with a girl that went to my school and they couldnt susspend us bcuz it was out side of school
Let’s say you are a person of legal age and you say with a few friends that you are going to kill someone. You can go to jail for that because it’s a threat to someones well being.
I’m on facebook on my private page talking to my friends about how I want to kill my teacher.
YES YOU CAN, YOU ARE STUPID.
You know how bullying is extremely frounded upon?
They are responsible for what happens outside of school, if you go out and egg 37 houses the police will get a report on you, this CAN get on the news, they have full rights, EVERYONE thinks the school you go to is bad, the school makes punishments so they don’t lose funding.
I feel extreme disgrace knowing that I’m the same age as you all. This is why adults sh*t on us.
umm, yeah there is no “legal age” to kill someone!! and yes, you can get in trouble for doing something like you said, but you cant get in trouble for going to a harmless party or something, and by the way how many times have you been just so pissed off that you wanted to “kill” someone?? not everything you say is true, we’re teenagers, we say shit we dont mean!!
i agree with you. the adults are just trying to make everyone safe. if a kid goes and runs his mouth of at the wrong person, the adults have to help and fix it. its just how things work; the adults have been around longer and figured out a few more things then wat we kids no. its just life.
you realize you sound ignorant calling people stupid.and if you are “our age” stop trying to sound so much older and more mature… you just said frounded by the way..
Hey Andrew, you’re kind of talking out of your a**, threats are NOT illegal according to a cop himself, his words were, “I’m sorry, but first off you can not file a restraigning order on a minor for one, and two, threats aren’t illegal, if you told me you were going to get your shotgun out of the car and shoot me, I couldn’t arrest you, I probrobly wouldn’t be so quick to let you go to your car, but I couldn’t arrest you.” Now, this cop told us this when we tried going to get a restraigning order on a minor who threatened a lot of sh*t, so, I’m pretty sure that unless its a threat to national security, its not illegal.. but don’t take my word for it..
“Frounded”?
andrew++
Hey retard, does Columbine ring a bell? If nothing was done about it, and something bad happened to the student, you would be posting something like “they should have done something”. Don’t be stupid. “ZERO TOLERANCE”! When you grow up, you might understand. til then, shut up!
Every single post I have read of Bob’s is attacking the person, not making any valid discussion points. I believe Bob is an immature asshole, and all of his comments here should be thoroughly ignored.
shouldn’t make it so easy to get gun should you, silly American.
I agree. All these children have no clue. Their parents need to spend some time with them and discuss why threatening another person is wrong. Maybe they wouldn’t be so intolerant and hateful with guidance from parents. It’s not OK to say you’re going to kill someone, regardless if it’s just a childish meaningless threat thrown out there to gain attention.
I find it ironic that someone telling someone to grow up is also telling someone to shut up.
wow your right courtney im glad i left my gay ass school b4 all this sh*t started happening
1st of all you spelled allowed wrong, second of all what if it was you that was suppossed to be the victim? what if they actually go with it? when you end up in the hospital, you’ll wondering why no one stopped them. HOW YOU LIKE THEM APPLES?
and you spelt supposed wrong.
While you are correcting spelling for everyone, you should take a look at how you spelled supposed…
@ Mia — 1st of all you spelled ‘supposed’ wrong, second of all what apples?!?
Mia, next time you chastise someone for their spelling, you should check your own first. Supposed, not suppossed. HOW DO YOU LIKE THEM APPLES?
i agree thats just some crap
Let me see how to put this. Making a public statement that you plan to kill someone is grounds for being expelled. It is also a criminal act. There are rules and laws in society that are not written by teenagers and still exist and are enforcable even if self absorbed and not very bright teenagers don’t like them.
Ya you know what. He said hes going to kill me on facebook…hmmmm you could either 1. try being nicer to him and improve your skill as a teacher 2.Not creep on your students facebookpages 3. piss off this student and ruin his life giving him a reason to ACTUALLY want to kill me.. who would have guessed someone would have picked the 3rd option
Why doesn’t it surprise me that a girl who can’t spell or talk in an approprate manner would stick up for the students. I’m 17 and I firmly believe schools have the right to do so, if it’s public that a student parties, drinks, smokes or threatens to harm someone around them it’s everyone’s business. You don’t deserve to feel like someone has invaded your privacy if you’re moronic enough to go on a public site and say something stupid about your “private” life.
He made a threat.. yeah.. he should have been expelled for it!
@Courtney
You are an idiot.
Who said the teacher added anyone? Maybe this kid had a friend who told on him; they took a screenshot of the message to show to the teacher because they thought the threat was serious and didn’t want their friend to go to prison for killing someone. I think the kid should have gotten a much more serious punishment for a death threat than a mere expulsion. Jail time is deserved. Does conspiracy to commit murder ring a bell to you? Probably not Courtney, because you’re ignorant.
well i totally agree with courney outside school students can do and say what they want to no teacher has a right to go to an extend to expel a student just for a status update this is ridiculous besides the teacher wasnt killed now was he and its in our everyday phrase ‘i will kill’ buh its just an expression not really what someone is going to do omg this is so not cool or fair
bottom line-
teachers shouldnt be responsible for what happens outside of school. this should be left for parents or gaurdians. teachers do not have the right to expell someone over some silly little status on facebook. this situation is bizzarre!
what if it was someone who made their status about them committing suicide and no one took it seriously and it ended up happening? Threatening to kill a teacher or a bomb threat isn’t any different. Something of that nature needs to be taken seriously for the individuals safety.
If you threaten to kill a teacher on your status update, you deserve to be expelled, and the kid should be arrested. Uttering threats is illegal. It doesn’t matter if he updated outside of school hours, it was directed at a teacher, he should not be allowed back into that school, there’s too many school shootings and killings that happen to risk it.
Right. Then when someone posts something like they’re going to do something bad to someone with a screen name of ‘moo’(just using it as an example), and we do nothing, like you say we should, then something bad happens to this person(hypothetically), then we wont have to have dumb ass comments like yours. Are you an idiot? Does Columbine ring a bell?
they say that teacher take the place of the parents when the students are at school.
parents put their childs safety in their hands. this person could actually go through and the parents are wondering, how come the teachers didn’t stop it early on?
I think this is the biggest bull i have ever read. I mean come on if you say aaaww im gunna kill so and so you dont actually want to kill them its a figure of speech. As for the bomb threat thing that is more serious.
Actually it should have been a police matter. Definitely not for the parent to handle… They have proved their lack of parenting skills by having a child who would post such a thing. Some people are just ignorant.
@moo
You are an idiot.
Regardless of whether a teacher or anyone is responsible for what happens outside of school, that teacher has every right to press charges and do whatever means necessary to keep herself safe. There was a death threat on her LIFE. Did you miss that part? This kid got a small slap on the wrist compared to the serious jail-time in which Conspiracy to Commit Murder actually brings. You are right though: teachers shouldn’t have to be responsible of students outside of school times. But the reality is the student and their parents should be responsible. So guess what? This kid should take responsibility for his own actions for threatening to take another human life.
really? you threaten some one, no matter when where or how vague, its going to have consiquences. people dont want to take chances. the child that says, i have a bomb on a plane doesnt actually have one, clearly. so should the kid still be allowed to walk onto the plane without being checked? 99.999% of threats are not real, and everyone knows that. would you take that chance though? is it worth it?
terrorism and being pissed of at a (possibly sh*t) english teacher is a bit different. Over reaction to the max im afraid
Really? 99.999%? You can’t just make up statistics.
Accually 90% of statistics are made up. Lmfao.
Yeah you can…99.9999% of all statistics are made up….
Im going to kill you. just because i can.
i will now await said consequences.
Nice you can watch people F@ucking at a click of a button and people getting there @ss kicked but when someone says there going to kill someone this is were we draw the line?? hahahahahha i have lost hope in mankind
The reason the student was expelled was because they have to take it seriously, in a text box you can not express emotion to show that you are joking. This is also not a privacy issue, once you post something on the internet, anyone can see it, it’s become public. However on facebook you can make your profile private so no one other then your friends can see what you post which seems like this person did not do. This is what schools do though because what students do outside of school affects the school. There have been fights lately around my school where the whole school sort of got the blame put on them, as if everyone had done something. The point is people do not want others to become hurt so some things are blown out of proportion before anything can be said.
Actually you can express yourself in a text box with jokes and what so not, schools shouldnt have access to anyones accounts nor pay attention to them. Schools need to start training their teachers to learn how to profile their kids that they teach. Its not hard to profile people and its easy taught. A teacher should know which kids to take serious and which ones not to.
You’re dumb
You obviously have no concept of reality. Teachers are already underpaid for doing probably one of the most important jobs in our country. They work long hours and put up with disrepectful attitudes day after day for the love of teaching. What do you propose they cut out doing to go to your “profiling” classes? As if they don’t have enough to do. These kids that think they can behave any way they want with no consequences deserve a dose of reality. In the real world, this was a crime. Welcome to adulthood.
@Joshua
You are an idiot.
Allow me to reiterate what I said to Courtney and moo (above). Who said the teacher had access to this kid’s account? Maybe this kid had a friend who told on him. Maybe this kid left his Facebook page in a public area and someone saw it and called it in. And seriously, profiling is a horrible way to decide whether a death threat is serious or not. Profiling is not even a skill everyone can be good at. The very possibility of this kid being a very good kid in school would disarm a teacher if they were to “profile” him. Simply allowing anyone to get away with threatening to take away another person’s life – whether they have an acceptable “profile” or not – is just plain ignorant and careless.
wow thats sad i got introuble for trying to add my teacher that is completely retarted
OMG courtney you can like totally be expelled for something that like happened outside of school!!!! It’s called being responsible for your actions. The way to prevent it is to show some maturity and responsibility.
I’m surprised by some of the comments. First and foremost, we all know that at the high school level, very few parents monitor their children’s facebook pages. Even if a parent forbid the child from using facebook, they would still use it under an alias. And yes, if you make a threat (no matter how vague) you better be prepared for potential consequences. If you aren’t prepared, then keep your mouth shut. It doesn’t even matter if the kid was serious or not, the facts are you have an emotional and immature teenager saying things they shouldn’t. If you want to blame the parents, blame the parents for not providing the child with better tools to identify appropriate places and ways of blowing off steam.
For goodness sake, you were a teenager once so why don’t you understand? I mean, sure, if an adult makes a death threat it gets taken seriously. As it should. But a teenager VERY VERY VERY rarely will take action on their word. And if they do, then they will have a very strong (in their mind) reason for doing it. And people who say “The facts are… blah blah blah…” About us teenagers don’t have half a clue. THAT, is a fact. However, I do agree with your first three sentences, the rest-garbage.
This is too funny.
That’s really stupid especially since teens like to joke around a lot. And everyone knows that people say things they don’t mean all the time. Especially when they are upset at someone.
I Thought it was against school rules to add students or look @ their profiles on public sites like facebook (thats what my teachers told me anyways) also, schools & School districts shouldn’t be allowed to do ANYTHING about what happens after school hours or off of school property.. Paying close attention to that student after seeing them or hearing about them doing something wouldn’t be as bad, but getting suspended & expelled over that is complete Garbage
Yea because if he did kill her they could totally like fix her, right.
my sister got ISS for something she said on myspace.
Holy poop! Brevard County Florida!? I lived there last year!
well regarding the fact that in some of the incidents in american schools where students shot schoolmates and teacher where announce on Internet before hand and no one took it seriously: yes I think it is right to take action against it.
What’s the point in saying something that awful if you don’t mean it anyway? to stay away from trouble, watch your tongue!
What I dont understand is why the teachers would even be looking at their students profile. And another thing, why would they take it seriously? I mean if the teacher had any common sense she would’ve known that people probably think that all the time.. And the students probably say stuff to each other like “Oh, Im going to kill so&so because he/she gave me an assload of homework!” So, I dont think that the boy should have been expelled. I honestly think that the best thing they could’ve done was to say something to the child like mention it. The kid probably didn’t even know that he was doing anything bad.. So yeah d: All I’m saying is that I honestly think it was wrong to expel the poor child, especially if he didnt know that what he said was practically “illegal.”
Ignorance isn’t a defense what he did was COMPLETELY illegal.
Who says it was harmless? There have been enough shootings at schools that I think the teacher has every right to take this seriously. All those who said that it was wrong to expel the boy are probably kids who make just as stupid comments… judging from some of the grammar and spelling, not too bright kids…
LOLOLOLOL SO MUCH FOR AMERICAS FREEDOM OF SPEECH!!!
Before trying to say that this incident violates the freedom of speech you may want to actually read the first amendment.
Oh He was totally free to speak. He was also totally free to receive the consequences that come with speaking. Freedom means the ability to choose not the lack of consequences on said action
by the way freedom of speech ends when threatening action or verbal abuse begins second of all in the state of florida current law states that if someone threatens your life you have the right to shoot them where they stand or if they are threatening anyones life you can also respond by shooting them so if that kid were in florida and someone heard him say that about living person in there presence that teacher could have shot his dumbass in the face
Parents have control of their kids outside of school. Teachers do not have any power outside of school. This has been blown way out of porportion. I know that many kids have said that. Hey I guarentee that some teachers have said the same about students. We all know that we dont mean it. This situation makes no logical sense.
The little brat got what they deserved. Think
you have the right to threaten someone
who was trying to make an honest living, let alone
putting up with this crap??
I would have expelled the brat, too. Learn
some manners
Excuse me but you are extremely rude what if this was your child venting harmlessly. The thing is people like yourself are the reason why people are scared to say what they think and do what they want to do, im sure the boy who said that had no intention of hurting anyone just sayig what he was thinking with a little enthusiasm and exaggeration.
You said that the teacher was “putting up with this crap” then why basically has an innocent child been victimised and made an example of.
My point of view is that teachers should not be able to access student’s social networks because they are not there to be social they are teachers and should act as such, here in England it is illegal for teachers to add students on social networks unless they are at university level or higher and that is still frowned opon and even within certain school districts teachers are discouraged from even being part of social networks to prevent such thngs happening accidentally.
I have assumed you are a teacher from the wording in you comment and i’ll say there is the answer to stopping incidents such as these and leave the investigating to the authorities and let them dish out the punishments.
Lastly saying you “would have expelled the brat” and then saying that he should “learn some manners” in the same paragraph is very hypacritical.
You learn some flipping manners. You don’t even know this kid. One silly little mistake of telling people how he felt when he was annoyed and now everyone is judging him. You don’t know the teacher either, they might be the worst teacher in the world who didn’t put any effort into teaching and was a brat themself. You don’t know, so GET SOME MANNERS YOURSELF-THINK YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO JUDGE A COMPLETE STRANGER ON ONE THING THEY DID? No. Just, no.
Mark sounds like a traditional prick to me, maybe the kid shouldnt have said it, but be mature mark, if you want to derogatory dont stoop to a childish level to do it you prepubescent f*ck
It’s none of the teacher’s buisness what we do outside school. Leave that to parents or guardians.
If someone says they’re going to ‘kill’ someone, its most likely something said out of anger or spite. Most of the time, its a joke, not meant to be funny OR taken seriously.
I can imagine a community service or suspension punishment. But expelling is blowing the whole thing WAY out of proportion. If you ask me, that teacher is a wimp and stupid. They ruined a student’s education. I really do hope they’re happy, beacuse now he probably really DOES want to kill her.
Yea your wrong, jail time shouldn’t be out of the question. Reading some of these comments makes me think that you people think death is temporary.
The fact that kids this day and age think like you tells us all public education is failing, or maybe your parents are. Either way, to openly threaten someones life is not acceptable. The fact you call the teacher a “wimp and stupid” shows your maturity. If someone said/posted they were going to kill you, would you seriously just blow it off thinking it was a joke?
No matter what, they can’t expell someone when they did some off school grounds. They should of alerted the parents, and then sat down and talked about what they were going to do, WITH the child there. They should be sacked for a poor job and abusement of power. Yes, they were insuring the safety of a teacher, but the kid was off school grounds, after, or before school started. That is basically, pretty much illegal. And they shouldn’t of added the students in the first place. At my school, you can get sacked for that.
I acree with Moo and Matty: teachers are not responsible for their students outside of school hours UNLESS they are on a school-sanctioned trip (example, choir/sports trips). However, it is because of irresponsible parents that teachers feel the need to raise and discipline their students. In this case, the parent should have informed their child that this was unacceptable and that he would face internet restriction, and then they should have forced him to delete the status update. The school administration acted accordingly, albeit a bit prematurely, in an attempt to avoid the now-plausible event of murder by student. It could have been harmless, sure, but there are some psychopath students that would have acted on their words.
Has everyone forgotten Columbine already? What kids do outside of school is EVERYONE’s business, especially if they choose to say it or write it out in the open for all to see. The killers at Columbine, and other school shootings, spent their time outside of school making their hit list and weapons. Every time there is another school shooting, we all ask “How could this have been stopped”? Well maybe this is one of the times that it WAS stopped. Just because the student says it was a joke, doesn’t mean it always was a joke. If the Columbine killers had been caught before it happened, they probably would have said the same thing. You can’t make jokes about killing someone, especially in writing, and for others to see. I truly am sorry if some can’t understand being so harsh, but others that have been involved in or affected by a school shooting will.
Do you honestly think expelling those kids from Columbine High School would have ended the problem? Of course it wouldn’t have. It would only have made them more angry. Maybe provoking them even farther. How does expulsion solve this problem? It doesn’t.
Yes comments like that are serious but it should have been handled with and through the police department not through the school. Issue didn’t happen on school property. Do you think a person should get fired from a job for what they do in their personal life?
if what they do in their personal life affects how well they do their job or affects somebody at their job I’d say yes they could be fired. He may have been off of school property but he was in school jurisdiction when he brought up the teachers name. It’s the schools job to handle a threat against their staff just like it would be your boss’s at a work place if you threatend a co-worker.
Absolutely. You’re obviously not old enough/experienced enough to realize that your personal life affects your professeional/acedemic life. I’ve worked for two major fortune 100 companies. If you post something derrogatory on your profile(wether it be fb/myspace/twitter, etc.) you can and will get fired. When a company hires you, they are hiring you for who you are. They trust you with certain responsibilities. If they hired you for what you do opposed to who you are there would be no need for interviews…of course you probabaly aren’t old enough to work, so my time here is absolutely pointless. I’m scared of the world my children are growing up in…with so many kids these days(like yourself) that maintain their ignorance and refuse to mature.
The remark wasn’t about another student… it was about a teacher that was out on medical leave that the student did not want to return. That is why the school had to get involved.
Thats messed up…
Thanks God schools and police are now doing something about these weird kids!!!
Thats retarded. Should teachers even have a facebook or myspace?
This point is invalid… Think about how this does not apply. I agree though they shouldn’t have facebook. But that has absolutely nothing to do with this.
wtf is wrong with some of you he said he would kill her hes lucky thats all hes getting. it doesnt matter if its out of school. god people are so stupid theese days
You said it!
It’s BS anyways. Regardless of the intent behind her/his status, be it an authentic threat or just some letting of steam; People have the right to freedom of speach and freedom of press, however We’re becoming more of a policed nation than a free nation. In some recipe’s similar to America’s vendictive social parada have an outcome of revolution and revolt. However I dont see anyone elts standing up for their rights and freedoms “aside from people getting thrown in jail” because the social standard of walking on your knee’s has less of a threatening appearance than getting incarcerated for demanding the liberties they (Government) steal from you what are and should always be a birth right!
Topher knows whats up, everybody should think a little bit more like Topher.
Unintelligible.
Yet another child yelling freedom of speech. Hate to hurt your feelings, but as minors you have limited rights. Then let’s continue like I said earlier, go read the first amendment before thinking it was violated. If the person making the threat was an adult it would be a crime.
Really tired of all the high school kids crying and thinking the world should be handed to them. Put effort into school and learn!
Topher…you live in a fantasy world. A birth right? Soldiers die every day defending our rights. Including the right to work in a safe non-hostile environment. If you threaten someone outside of school or work you should get fired or expelled. That is how we maintain order in a society. This is the real world. Don’t make threats you mean. This kid is lucky the teacher didn’t take him out and claim self defense.
Do me a favor, stop posting stuff you don’t know about. Look up the first amendment so you don’t look like such an ignorant child. The constitution is protection from the government. This means that the government can not impose on your rights, however, saying you are going to kill somoeone is putting their life in danger. Wethere you or he or she is smart enough to realize that is your own fault. Fact of the matter is, the kid said he was going to kill someone, a teacher specifically, of course he should be expelled, and he should be charged on a legal standpoint. And obviously parents are becoming less and less involved in the wellbeing of their children and I for one am glad that schools are involved in my children and monitor their safety.
You all complain but think if a teacher had found a status like this (if facebook/myspace was around)when Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold shot up Columbine? In hind-site, don’t you wish it could have been prevented? Don’t you wish that if someone read what they were thinking on status like that, that they be confronted, helped or something? It’s better to be safe than have more school shootings!
First of all, no action was taken to prevent the student from killing the teacher. The student was expelled. Nothing more, nothing less. Now they have to attend school in a different school district. So has anything really been done to protect the teacher? No. the only thing thats changed is that the student will not be attending school there anymore, and that now the student is probably even more pissed off at the teacher than they were before. The status was more that likely an empty threat or a source of venting, but now we’ve gone and screwed over the students education, social life and reputation. Now we end up with an even agrier student who has more reason now for killing the teacher than they did before. They my be going to a different school, but there is still nothing stopping the student from going to that school to kill the teacher. If they are crazed enough to kill someone, I doubt that going to a school that they are expelled from will bother them and the teacher’s life is even more endangered now than ever. Also, have you considered that if they were really going to kill the teacher, they probably would have done it without warning? I seriously doubt that they would have posted that they were going to kill the teacher before they did it. I think people also forget that this is a teeneager that we are dealing with. Who, as a teenager, didn’t talk about their teachers or threaten to kill somebody? It doesn’t mean that you mean it? Who ever hasn’t said at some point in life, “If you …….. I’m going to kill you.” Its an empty threat. Its a joke. Its not a big deal, but its been made into one by a teacher that decided to freak out, expell a student, and further endanger the life of a teacher. This whole thing has been blown way out of proportion and the reaction to the situation was totally the wrong way to handle things. So my anwser to your question is that yes, I wish it could have been prevented. But this is in no way the same situation and the reaction to this situation did absolutely nothing to prevent a school shooting and possibly increased the chances of one. If the student had been confronted or helped, then yes, I agree with you completely. But the student was not helped. They, instead, were expelled and left undealt with. Now they get to be someone else’s problem.
i reckon i guese it was ok for expelling the student for that reason but i got stood down, me and my mates for drinking and it was honestly so stupid, they demanded that we stand up in front of my form class and apologize to them all it was like wtf fag, it aint none of your business so i kinda agree with some of you guys
suspension would of been better
To be fair, as a student myself in University, writing petty things like, “I’m gonna kill my teacher!” is, well, petty. To write it on a technically PUBLIC domain, you’re opening it to others who are allowed to see this. Facebook states that once you post something on their website, it’s there’s for the taking and the defacing.
Kid got served.
By the way, SCHOOL’S GREAT, so embrace grammar.
Grammar correction: it’s theirs for the taking
Lucy, for someone telling others to “embrace grammar,” yours is pretty atrocious.
i think it is crazy that the student was expelled. i walk home from school with my friends and we play fight each other and tackle each other. one day a bus driver saw my friend play tackle someone else. the bus driver knew it wasnt on school property and wasnt real fighting. she knew this becaude my friend stood up started laughing and helped the other kid up, then he started laughing. the next day everyone who was near them was called up to the office. they both recived 3 hours of detention. the school is starting to take over our personal lives
This would be a legitimate time to take a stand and not go to detention. Because honestly in the situation you just described the school couldn’t do anything about it. Sounds too ridiculous to be true but you know those bus drivers, haha.
Freedom of Speech. Done. If the Nazi’s and Ku Klux Klan still preach hatred, why can’t this lone kid preach hatred, it is his 1st Amendment right to speak his mind. Who is the school district to limit that.
That is stupid. The schools have absolutley NO authority over what students do outside of school, thats up to parents and the police. Teachers and schools are to teach and teach only, not moniter students facebook profiles. If the police got involved that would be fine as they have the authority, but school administration WTF! That school should be sued for every single damn penny they have, surly its illegal for teachers to friend students anyways! Schools and teachers are scum!
thats kinda psychotic? dontcha think?
Expulsion over a threat is not an unreasonable sanction to be given to the student who commits the act, particularly if it is toward a faculty member or administrator.
The curious thing about the comments are that people keep referring to Columbine, and asking if people have forgotten it. Please be reminded that it happened eleven years ago. I’m guessing that the teenagers who have posted here probably were not even old enough to remember the significance of this massacre – I, on the other hand, was 20. Nonetheless, for those who think that teachers and school administrators do not have any jurisdiction over students’ behaviors outside of school are sorely mistaken – they DO.
Think of it in these terms: An employer has some jurisdiction over what their employees do off the job. If an employee engages in debauchery or criminal activity and it gets back to the employer (and it usually will if it involves an arrest; I’ve witnessed it at my own work), the employer is well within its rights to terminate said person’s employment for engaging in behavior that would reflect poorly on the organization, even at a tentative level. This is usually outlined in any employee handbook, particularly with a clause about “at-will employment.”
The same goes for students.
To give a more recent example than Columbine, think of the Duke students who were accused of raping that no-account whore who lied about ever being attacked. (And before anyone slaps the race card on the table, I am African-American, and I am not calling that woman a whore just because she is African-American. No; she WAS a whore – it was one of her occupations aside from being a stripper. Back to the point…) Perjury aside, however, Duke’s administration was well within their rights to impose whatever sanction they saw fit for those boys who allegedly committed the crime because said crime reflected poorly on the institution – anything from revocation of school privileges, to rescinding of scholarships, removal from athletic teams, to expulsion.
It would also behoove some of these “Generation Z” kids to read “Nineteen Minutes” by Jodi Picoult, which touches on a similar situation.
Joke or not, that kid should have used better judgment than that and kept his sentiments to himself – ESPECIALLY if he has his teacher as a “friend” on Facebook. And if the latter was the case for that student, then that actually illustrates just how stupid this kid is.
Just like i got wrote up at work for something i posted on my facebook, saying i just got ripped off by work
15 bucks this time, i hope they find my money i am tired of the excuses! I had no names or the company name and still got wrote up on my off time!! they had it printed out and sent to corporate and everything
Okay, this is STUPID!! The school isn’t responsible for the things we do outside of school. It is none of their freaking buisness. Yeah, saying “I’m going to kill my english teacher!” is a little harsh, but still. It’s her/his own life so he gets to decides what he does with it. The school has nothing to do with it. If the police has to investigate because of a small post on Facebook about “killing” their English teacher. Then it’s just plain stupid. This whole story is STUPID
Okay first of all teachers should be able to look at their students status to see what is going on but just because a student goes out to a party okay don’t freak out they were having a good time as long as they aren’t getting wasted or high. Then again if they were then let their parents deal with it its their kids under their custody NOT the schools. Also i think it’s retarded how students equally bully each other over the internet for example myspace or facebook & how kids my age will argue and argue about stupid stuff. Well they want to deal with it themselves OBVIOUSLY so why should the school staff get involved? Exactly they shouldn’t. Who should really get involved are the parents which some don’t show they are responsible enough to do so. If you want to argue with me this is coming from the mind of a girl under the age of fourteen so go ahead and stoop to that low of a level just because you know i am correct. -Katelyn(:
Wow unless they are on school grounds or with in the school hours the school cannot discipline students. It’s a law actually and teachers shouldn’t even have access to student sites like myspace/facebook/etc. Schools are starting to take personal lives aawy from us. There is a barrier in between school and personal lives. It should stay that way.
It is about time that something is done about Facebook hazing. Kids should understand that if you put it on a public access site then you can get into trouble for it.
Its good to see that people are doing something about these threats…but the thing is that our society takes the word “killing” way too lightly…I always say things that I don’t mean. I’ve said “I’m gonna kill you bro!”, if he took my PS3 but do you think I mean it? NO. Its just that we take words such as kill, rape, gay, retarted, etc. way too lightly and don’t take em’ seriously…
I am glad that officials took action, but I do not believe he should have been expelled. Being talked to and MAYBE a minor punishment would have done just fine, but EXPULSION?!?!?! Really?!?!?!
Wtf I say im gonna kill people all the time, AND WITH GOOD DETAILS but nothing ever happened to me. Maybe cuz here in mexico ppl dont give a crap. Oh u silly americans.
Watch out Obama I might murder someboddeh :b
I am 23 and will admit it right away it shouldn’t have been long ago that i left schooling but i left when i was 14 due to bullying. it started out as supposedly harmless texting how they got my number i dont know i showed my mum and we went to the head teacher, who said he couldn’t do anything outside the school hours. my mum felt injusted because she thought as the bullying was going on in school too the teachers should have dealt with it. nothing got done about it a few weeks later it got so bad i was beaten up outside of school by 14 girls, only one hit me i mean but the others just built a wall around me and her so i couldn’t leave, but i couldn’t fight back because with that many girls who kows what would have happened so i just had to stand there untill it was over. i know this might not seam to have anything to do with this subject but it does. threats should be taken seriously wherever they are made. if the threats were taken seriously with me i wouldn’t have had someone threaten to slit my throat and beat me up. how would you all be speaking now if the teachers did nothing (like mine did they even told my mum they couldn’t garuntee my safety at school if she took me to the gate and picked me up, something could still happen i never went back to school) and that teacher was approached by a load of lads trying to act cool and really did hurt her. it may have been a silly status but i’m sure the teachers considered the matter very carefully and looked at the kids history and even possibly spoke to the parents before they made their decision. Its better to be safe than sorry in my book anyway and no offence meant to any of your comments, i just wish someone had taken the threats given to me seriously and now i wouldn’t be struggling so much, my chance to learn was taken away. this teacher can now work comfortable with her students without worrying about being attacked, but i bet she still looks over her shoulder as she gets into her car please take into account how she must feel, scared is probably whats going through her head. if you read the information i have there was a lot of other things happen to lead to the expulsion and i can’t say i blame them.
Minority Report?
HEY EVERYONE! Don’t you think that this kinda thing is a serious violation of a students first amendment? Since when do school districts think they have the authority to strip us of our amendments? Sure if a student is talking in class and the teacher says to stop talking and the student sys “Freedom of speech” thats when we take advantage of this whole freedom of speech amendment. Of course if he’s really going to kill her he wouldn’t announce it to EVERYONE on facebook fully knowing that the school is wrongly monitoring his FB page. Sounds to me like he was just frustrated and was like “omg i hate ms bowen aaahhhh ima kill her why dont she like me” that. If anything the chances are he was just frustrated and made a wrong choice of words. I say it’s a huge misunderstanding.
like adam sweet says, it seems like they are kind of taking over. I dont think itll end up tht theyll have as much as the government, but I do believe that the schools authorities are getting a little out of hand. If they wanna do something about kids threatening they can consult the police. If they wanna do something about cell phones in class then tell the parents, and I’m sure that majority of the parents would gladly punish their child for cell phone in class. The only thing that they need to be concerned about is making sure we know the material. They dont need to be so hellbent on making sure we grow up to be good people, leave that to the parents.
Silly American’s and their easy guns, I might come over and shoot some people in a school, sounds like fun, not going to lie to you.