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The right to bully (2 Viewers)

loquasagacious

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Victoria Kim in LA Times republished in the smh said:
LOS ANGELES:A US District Court judge has sided with a student who posted an allegedly bullying video on YouTube, saying the school went too far in suspending her.

Amid rising concerns over cyber bullying, and even calls for its criminalisation, some courts, parents and free speech advocates are fighting back: students, they say, have a right to be nasty in cyberspace.

One morning in May last year, a student walked crying into Janice Hart's office at a Beverly Hills school. She had been humiliated and couldn't face going to class, the girl told the counsellor.

The night before, a classmate had posted a video on YouTube with a group of other students bad-mouthing her, calling her ''spoiled'', a ''brat'' and a ''slut''.
Text and instant messages had been flying ever since. Half the class must have seen the video by now, the girl said. The counsellor took the problem to the principal, who took it to a district administrator, who asked the school district's lawyers what they could do.

In the end, citing ''cyber bullying'' concerns, school officials suspended the girl who posted the video for two days.

That student took the case to court, saying her right to free speech had been violated.

Judge Stephen Wilson wrote in his judgment: ''To allow the school to cast this wide a net and suspend a student simply because another student takes offence to their speech, without any evidence that such speech caused a substantial disruption of the school's activities, runs afoul [of the law].

''The court cannot uphold school discipline of student speech simply because young persons are unpredictable or immature, or because, in general, teenagers are emotionally fragile and may often fight over hurtful comments.''

The ability of schools to limit student speech is an age-old issue that has been repeatedly tried and tested in the courts.

But with teenagers increasingly in cyberspace, school officials find themselves on unfamiliar grounds. Free-speech advocates said the notoriety of highly publicised cases, such as the Missouri girl who committed suicide after a mean-spirited MySpace message, have led to schools cracking down on student expression on the internet.

''If all cruel teasing led to suicide, the human race would be extinct,'' said Eugene Volokh, a law professor at the University of California in Los Angeles.
In Pennsylvania, a student sued when he was suspended for 10 days for creating a MySpace profile of the school principal. The student referred to the principal as a ''big steroid freak'' and a ''big whore'' and said that he was ''too drunk to remember'' the date of his birthday.

The judge found that even though the profile was ''lewd, profane and sexually inappropriate'', the school did not have the right to restrict speech because the profile did not cause disruption on campus.
http://www. smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/students-right-to-be-nasty-on-net-upheld-20091214-ksdj.html

An interesting example of the ongoing tension between freedom of speech and freedom from undue harrasment. What are people's thoughts on the issue?
 

SeCKSiiMiNh

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http://www. smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/students-right-to-be-nasty-on-net-upheld-20091214-ksdj.html

An interesting example of the ongoing tension between freedom of speech and freedom from undue harrasment. What are people's thoughts on the issue?
I don't agree with the court's siding with the bully.

Isn't this covered in Australia in the law of torts under defamation (i.e. slander)?
 

Planck

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Free speech above all. Get rid of defamation and libel laws, they are outdated and outmoded methods of quashing free speech.

Remove the monopoly on supposed truth that the media industries have and have our level of national discourse actually enabled for frank and robust criticism of individuals.
 

Serius

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I dont agree with the repeated harassment and slandering of a kid, especially in a public space. Thats only the verbal part of bullying...we all know it rarely stops at that. Cant you get restraining orders etc if someone is harassing you like this in real life?
 

loquasagacious

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I don't agree with the court's siding with the bully.

Isn't this covered in Australia in the law of torts under defamation (i.e. slander)?
I'm not sure if defammation/libel has come into bullying cases before, it would certainly make for an interesting scenario. Truth being the defense to defamation claims could you then see a school principal determining whether or not student X is actually stupid/slutty/ugly/etc and therefore the bullying did not constitute defammation....
 

SeCKSiiMiNh

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Free speech above all. Get rid of defamation and libel laws, they are outdated and outmoded methods of quashing free speech.

Remove the monopoly on supposed truth that the media industries have and have our level of national discourse actually enabled for frank and robust criticism of individuals.
Wouldn't that then open room for vilification, sedition, and racism?
 

Planck

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Wouldn't that then open room for vilification, sedition, and racism?
Sedition?

Who cares about vilification and racism, to be honest. It'll just bring those unacceptable elements out into the open.
 

Planck

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Speech or behavior which encourages hatred of the monarch/government; or directed against the peace of the state.
I know what it means but who actually in this day and age who actually cares about it?

I owe the state nothing.
 

jennyfromdabloc

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I dont agree with the repeated harassment and slandering of a kid, especially in a public space. Thats only the verbal part of bullying...we all know it rarely stops at that. Cant you get restraining orders etc if someone is harassing you like this in real life?
If someone is bullying you at school there is very little you can do to avoid being victimized. You are trapped in the school grounds with them.

If someone is bullying you via the internet, just block them and/or don't visit the applicable web pages. Easily solved.

It is not up to schools or the legal system to get involved here.
 

David Spade

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Why should a person be stopped from visiting certain web pages just because they may be subjected to abuse/bullying by another person whilst on that page?
 

Napstar

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Why don't kids just harden the fuck up.

Also Shane, nothing is stopping the kids from going on those webpages. Bebo, Facebook, Myspace; they all have features that allow you to block people from accessing your profile. You can block and delete on MSN.

It's not hard.
 

SAVAK

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i reckon cyber bullying is wrong because people have their feelings hurt
 

Planck

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Well what about sexual harassment then?
I view all speech as free, including sexual harassment, racism, vilification, etc.

Harassment comes into play in the workplace, if a company says that behaviour is unacceptable in the contract you have for working with them, then that contract should be rescinded if you don't hold up your end of it.

Trivial to deal with.
 

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