Student Suspended for Project on Consequences of Bullying

[Spider-Who?]

Even more ridiculous news coming from school systems....

http://moms.today.msnbc.msn.com/_ne...eo-with-fake-suicide?chromedomain=todayhealth

Long story short, a freshman created a school project about the consequences of bullying. The project was about the life of a fictitious student who deals with bullying. Two aspects of the project included a fake facebook profile and a video that deals with the life and suicide of the victim. In all aspects of the project, the student issues a disclaimer that the facebook profile, character, and events in the video are all fictitious (disclaimers which the school has ignored).

The school is now suspending the student.

“I just created the video in order to raise awareness of the major issue that’s bullying,” 15-year-old Jessica Barba told Matt Lauer on TODAY. “I don’t understand why I’m being punished for it.”

“I tried explaining it so much ... they had the printouts of the page but none of the printouts that they had were the ones where I specify that it was a fake page,” Jessica said....Her mother, Jody, did bring printouts showing the disclaimer to school officials, but she told Lauer, “they didn’t really care too much about that.”

“They’ve been teaching us since we were in kindergarten that you treat people the way you want to be treated and not to bully,” Jessica said in the earlier interview. “Then I make some type of movement in it and I get punished for it.”

Superintendent Allan Gerstenlauer told WNBC New York on Tuesday that Jessica’s video, posted online on May 15, was "unfortunate in that it created a substantial disruption to the school."

The New York Civil Liberties Union disapproved of the suspension.

“Students don’t lose their right to free speech at the school house gates,” Amol Sinha, director of the Suffolk County chapter of the NYCLU, said in an email to TODAY.com. “As students prepare to participate as full citizens in society, schools should encourage independent thought and dialogue about political and current events, even controversial ones. No school should ever punish a student because they disagree with what she’s saying, which appears to be exactly what happened here.”

 

[The Squirrel]

Well hopefully the Government will force them to reinstate her.

 

[amazingfantasy15]

Guess it really shows the education systems stance on bullying, they're for it and if you speak out against it, they'll punish you.

 

[Schlosser85]

Ignore it, silence anyone who tries to talk about it, and maybe it will go away.

A substantial disruption? And bullying isn't a disruption?

Maybe people shouldn't be so upset by having uncomfortable truths highlighted.

 

[Secret Fawful]

What a @$&# school.

 

[Optimus_Prime_]

Well hopefully the Government will force them to reinstate her.

Yes. I agree.

It took me a while to finally understand why she was suspended. It is apparently because the mother who saw and printed out the page did not scroll down far enough to see it was fake. She simply read a status update saying "I wish I was dead" and called the police. I really can't blame her. The police then called the school, and they just acted like buffoons.

The school should allowed the girl to continue to go to school and simply had her parents delete the videos and facebook page (I guess they didn't even call the parents first). It seems to me like enough people were aware the page was fake that it wasn't any real secret the school had to dig for. I'm sure some beaucrat at the school just overreacted and shoved some paper through with her name on it. I mean this is clearly all an accident and misunderstanding. She was being very creative, and I mean that mother probably didn't understand what was going on. If I were her family I'd definitely want some money from that school district or something. Way dumb.

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

Sometimes I wonder if schools want weaker kids to suffer through the humiliation of bullying.

Hunger Games High

 

[The Morningstar]

This was a really good project it sounds like. It's the same concept as a film tackling these issues.

The student who did it should be praised, not ****ing suspended.

 

[obin_gam]

I remember an art project in sweden who did the exact same thing, a blog that went on for some years if I recall correctly and then the fake-acount killed herself (or was it himeslf? cant remember). Didnt get in too much trouble but there was certainly a voiced minority who did not like it one bit haha.

 

[I SEE SPIDEY]

Guess it really shows the education systems stance on bullying, they're for it and if you speak out against it, they'll punish you.

This.

 

[THE MR. TERRIFIC]

Schools = Fail

 

[Optimus_Prime_]

Guess it really shows the education systems stance on bullying, they're for it and if you speak out against it, they'll punish you.

Ignore it, silence anyone who tries to talk about it, and maybe it will go away.

A substantial disruption? And bullying isn't a disruption?

Maybe people shouldn't be so upset by having uncomfortable truths highlighted.

This.

You should read the article. The suspension was not over the content of her project, it was over the reaction the police had to it (it's still a really silly suspension though).

 

[Schlosser85]

I did read the article.

 

[amazingfantasy15]

You should read the article. The suspension was not over the content of her project, it was over the reaction the police had to it (it's still a really silly suspension though).

I did read the article, some women found the page, called the police, the police called the school and the kid was suspended. The kid and her parent's went into the school, told them it was a fake account and for a project, but the school didn't budge on the suspension. I'm not even sure why the girl was suspended, for making a fake facebook account? Is that against the rules? Near as I can tell, she put a spotlight on bullying and the possible consequences of it, the school responded by suspending her. You hear all the time about these suicides from bullied teens and how the bully are never punished. Sure seems like the education system turns a blind eye on it, unless you speak out against it, the they react very quickly by suspending you.

 

[Optimus_Prime_]

I did read the article, some women found the page, called the police, the police called the school and the kid was suspended. The kid and her parent's went into the school, told them it was a fake account and for a project, but the school didn't budge on the suspension. I'm not even sure why the girl was suspended, for making a fake facebook account? Is that against the rules? Near as I can tell, she put a spotlight on bullying and the possible consequences of it, the school responded by suspending her. You hear all the time about these suicides from bullied teens and how the bully are never punished. Sure seems like the education system turns a blind eye on it, unless you speak out against it, the they react very quickly by suspending you.

They felt the police calling the school was a 'disruption'. They also didn't like that the fake page (without the posts saying it was fake) was being passed around and causing a stir. That's why she was suspended. There's nothing in the article indicated the school had a problem with the content of the account, it was the fact that the school was questioned about a suicide. This wasn't some attempt to make some political point; school's just dislike their students drawing attention from police. It's still a silly suspension though. School's should draw a line between crying wolf and accidentally crying wolf. I don't really see why she is held responsible though with a suspension, they simply should've deleted the page and let her go on about her business.

 

[Nell2ThaIzzay]

Thing is from the sound of things, it wasn't even the girl that cried wolf, accidentally or otherwise. It was a mother that couldn't pay attention and freaked out.

 

[Optimus_Prime_]

Thing is from the sound of things, it wasn't even the girl that cried wolf, accidentally or otherwise. It was a mother that couldn't pay attention and freaked out.

If anything they should've suspended her kidt: lol. No, but you're right on that. If the mother simply scrolled down a bit she would never have called the cops, and none of this would've ever happened.

 

[amazingfantasy15]

They felt the police calling the school was a 'disruption'. They also didn't like that the fake page (without the posts saying it was fake) was being passed around and causing a stir. That's why she was suspended. There's nothing in the article indicated the school had a problem with the content of the account, it was the fact that the school was questioned about a suicide. This wasn't some attempt to make some political point; school's just dislike their students drawing attention from police. It's still a silly suspension though. School's should draw a line between crying wolf and accidentally crying wolf. I don't really see why she is held responsible though with a suspension, they simply should've deleted the page and let her go on about her business.

So I guess the lesson is, if you're being bullied just have your parents call the cops about it, so they'll call the school, causing a disruption which will result in the bully getting suspended.

 

[Optimus_Prime_]

So I guess the lesson is, if you're being bullied just have your parents call the cops about it, so they'll call the school, causing a disruption which will result in the bully getting suspended.

What? Why do you keep bringing up bullying? She called because she thought a student was going to committ suicide because she read a post reading "I wish I were dead". It wasn't over bullying, she was trying to alert the police about a suicide. Suicide is actually illegal (sort of. Technically you're beyond the law if successful, but there can still be legal consequences). If someone tells you they're going to committ suicide the police want to know about it, and they'll almost immediately launch an investigation. They also don't like false alarms like that.

So yes, if you hear someone is going to committ suicide you should report it to authorities. It's illegal, and if they found out you knew and didn't report it you can get in trouble. The mother did have a knee jerk reaction. Rather than calmly looking over the page she just called the cops. That's really a shame because clearly the girl didn't intend for anyone to take it that way. I'm assuming the school identified Jessica to the police. That's what they did wrong. The school should've privately looked into it once realizing it was fake then just told the cops they'd resolve it, and let her parents take care of it with no actual reprimand for her.

The real issue here is she was creatively and harmlessly expressing herself. To me this is like painting a picture or writing a story in a different medium. Facebook and YouTube are creative tools, and the mother was wrong to off handedly interpret them as serious reality. It's like television. Some of that's real and some is fake and it's irresponsible of the mother to not investigate that before notifying the police.