Students Suspended For Cyber Bullying Their Own Principal
Sameer Bhardwaj
principals. But the ones many of us remember came long before there
was an Internet.And it's taken the nature of those battles to a place
few could ever have imagined.
At least 19 students at Robert F. Hall Catholic Secondary School have
been suspended for cyber bullying their own principal.
The teens were angry when Edward McMahon enforced a rule banning
electronic devices - like MP3 players and cell phones - in the
school.
They took their complaints to the worldwide web site called
"Facebook", a MySpace-like entity that encourages kids to chat with
each other.
And chat they did.
At first the postings were just gripes about the policy. But they
gradually deteriorated into vulgar, sexually explicit and untrue
comments about the principal.
When it was brought to the attention of school officials, the hammer
came down on the 19 judged responsible at the Caledon East campus.
They're out of class for just over a week for their cyber bullying, a
trend that sees mostly anonymous posters terrorize a chosen figure via
taunting and false postings over the web.
In most cases, it's another student. But this instance is unusual
because an adult authority figure has been the target.
But the students complain some of those told to stay home weren't
guilty of any egregious offences and are being lumped in with the few
who may have taken it too far.
And they worry what the suspensions might do to their permanent
records or college applications.
The postings have since been taken down.