New Tag: Kid Stupidity

The stupidity theme for tags makes it tricky once in a while.  I realize now I am going to have several child-related articles on here, as I have personally adopted a few topics that I am going to follow.  The treatment of kids, crimes against kids, ways to help kids, kid success stories, school-related issues, anything at all that involves kids is going to bear the tag.  And yes, stupid stuff kids do will likely end up there also.  I watch Tosh too much to say I'll never share a kid on a skateboard moment.

Anyway, having said that I am going to go ahead and talk about the latest in school stupidity.  I go into this with the same attitude I have towards police stories: I do not seek the evil, I just read the news.  I am totally down with giving kudos when I find the occasion.  But stories like the one I am about to share should show the clear reason for why we have to pay special attention to schools:

(CNN) -- A Minnesota middle school student, with the backing of the American Civil Liberties Union, is suing her school district over a search of her Facebook and e-mail accounts by school employees.

The 12-year-old sixth grade student, identified in court documents only as R.S., was on two occasions punished for statements she made on her Facebook account, and was also pressured to divulge her password to school officials, the complaint states.

"R.S. was intimidated, frightened, humiliated and sobbing while she was detained in the small school room" as she watched a counselor, a deputy, and another school employee pore over her private communications.

The lawsuit claims that her First Amendment rights were violated by employees at Minnewaska Area Middle School, in west-central Minnesota, as well as her Fourth Amendment rights regarding unreasonable search and seizure.

The Minnewaska School District denies any wrongdoing.

The link fills in many details, but my main concerns are with what I quoted above.  Passwords are a relatively new addition to our lives.  We need to decide now how protected that information should be, and how it will be checked.  A child saying she "hated" someone who she had an argument with is not ideal, but totally legal.  Yes, folks, that's right.  Kids don't have to like everything said or done to them in life.  It's not an offense, and a girl this age can't be held accountable for having a fairly simple vocabulary.  One would expect a professor to have a better grasp on definition than a sixth-grader, for example.

Forcing her to give up her password, reading her private correspondence (the law seems to frown upon that) and taking it upon themselves to punish her for what was said in private correspondence... where to begin?  Coercing any information from a child without their parents being notified should be enough to send this through the courts, but whatever happened to treating children like human beings?  She typed a swear word, and it's not up to the schools to monitor what she does online.  The article clearly states the girl never used school property to update her status.

The mother wasn't notified.  The first rule of kid fight club is you always call the parents.  From that we have valid violations and serious boundary issues.  Caught in the middle is a kid who never had a chance, because we drill obeying school staff into their heads from the first day of kindergarten.