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| Photo by Brian Kerrigan |
Have you
ever thought that you could get in trouble at school because of your social
media account? According to ABC News 4, a senior at the School of the Arts
tweeted the “n-word” about another student, and got suspended for five days.
Ashley Patrick’s mother is now suing the Charleston County School District to
have her record cleared of any improper charges, and to have the school
district pay for any legal fees.
This does not seem right. The
student is the one that made the mistake. I personally also got in trouble for
my social media account while in high school. I said some negative comments to
another student, and I got called to the office the following Monday morning. I
was fortunate enough to not get in too much trouble, but one thing that my Vice
Principal taught me from this: if it affects the learning environment, then it
has everything to do with the school. In this pending legal case, the student
affected the learning environment through her racism. Patrick may feel that
this has nothing to do with the school, but with social media taking over our
daily lives, she will soon learn how much her tweeting can affect her off-line
life. For example, if she were to have a job and post derogatory things about
that job, there is a very good chance she would get reprimanded or fired for
this kind of behavior. She should learn this lesson now.
I understand how Ashley and her
family think that the school district went too far suspending her for five
days, and having her miss five days of learning, but hopefully this is a lesson
well learned. Schools need to teach real-life lessons, and this is a real-life
lesson. Parents often think they are helping their children by stepping in with
situations such as this one, but all they are doing is keeping them from
learning important lessons. I feel that the student had the correct punishment.
Patrick used poor judgment, not only
in attacking another student through a tweet, but also about what she chose to
say. I believe that this was a lesson well learned about the larger society’s
refusal to accept racism for Patrick and for other students thinking of doing
something similar. ABC 4 News reports that in addition to Ashley using her
Twitter account to call a student a vulgar name, she actually called the other
student one of the worst words you can use in today’s society, the “n-word.”
This tweet was intended to be malicious, which is why the school district had
to go down hard on her, and give her five days of suspension, 20 hours of
community service, and a 500-word essay on racism and social media assignment
to present at a school board meeting. Hopefully, she will learn the seriousness
of using such an awful word towards other people, and what it really means.
Another reason that the school
district went so hard on Patrick is because social media is really taking over
our lives, and changing so many things. An example of this is how social media
is affecting our jobs. In my current position, we have to sign a form stating
that we will not use our personal social media accounts to talk about the
business, period. Fox News reports that a barista in Seattle lost his position
because of an anonymous blog that he had, where he would vent about his
customers, and his boss. This situation is similar.
The barista, Matt, never actually
said his personal information, where he worked, any information about his boss,
or about his customers. He really was only venting about his daily “grind.”
Unfortunately, however, when it came out that he was the barista behind this
anonymous blog, the company had no choice but to fire him, otherwise it would
look as though they condone this kind of behavior. The relation between these
two stories is that social media has an effect on more than we think. If the
school district chose to look beyond this post, they would be condoning it, and
not be preparing students for the real world.
I do understand how Patrick and her
family would be upset over the punishment. Patrick’s mother’s argument that her
daughter missed five valuable days of learning, and had this affect her
academic record, is right. It will affect her. But if she faced no consequences
for her actions, what would this be teaching not only Ashley, but other
students growing up in today’s society? It would be teaching them that their
actions online have no consequences with the real world, when in fact they do.
This is not the correct action to take with our children. Instead, her parents
should have sat her down and explained the seriousness of the situation and
supported the school board.
Social media is changing our world
as we know it, and if we don’t start holding people accountable, then when will
we? Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are only some of the websites that people,
along with companies, are using to communicate and network. This new form of
communication is coming with new rules that we must follow, and consequences if
we don’t. Although Ashley’s punishment may seem harsh, I feel that it is the
best way to teach her that the online world is not separate from the real
world, and what she does there has consequences here.
For further reading
“School of the Arts senior files suit against CCSD.”ABC
New 4. 10 June 2013. Web. 17 June 2013.
“Seattle barista fired over bitter blog that
rips customers, boss.” Fox News. 12 February 2013. Web. 17 June 2013
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