Schools hate beads

 If you've snooped around Digg in the past year, you've probably heard about the girls who were expelled for having "racy" photos on their MySpace. Not, it's not as if I saw the pictures, but you don't need to have seen them to have the ability to respond. What I can't do is call them sluts, because I don't have enough information for that. They may very well be skanks, and it would make me smile a bit to know that teasing leg-spreaders are getting kicked out of schools on the basis of using their crotch to get by in life. It would be worth the chuckles.

 No details, though, and I don't need to have the details to separate a case of the giggles from an actual court case and people's rights. The appeal going on right now has to do with the school violating free speech by taking their "personal" MySpace pictures into account for school related privileges. This is a pretty rock solid defense, because it's pretty common sense.

 I know that I bashed the waiter who bashed a "celebrity" (who was that again?) on his Twitter page, but those are two entirely different cases. A restaurant is a business that hires employees for various qualities, including character. To demonstrate poor character by trashing a customer's reputation on a named public Twitter account is a common sense "you just damaged the company image" firing.

 I don't know every detail about the teens or their pictures, but I'm not defending them so much as defending the case in point. If their MySpace pics were set to private, or even if they were made public in most cases, then the school board can't punish them unless it is a private institution. It's illegal. The difference with private schools and colleges is that no student truly has a right to be there. A school, for most reasons, may kick students out if their character is brought into question. There are some exceptions, all of which I agree with. If you admit John Smith into your college on the basis of his grade and you find a way to kick him out or limit his school privileges because you didn't realize he was black until he arrived, your ass should get sued to the depths of your assets and beyond.

 Public schools are a right, however. Safety is a concern, but the growth of individual knowledge and the right to it is what these schools are supposed to be nurturing. If these kids threatened a hate crime, then I could understand. This isn't the case, and as far as I'm understanding, these pictures weren't a public invite for every male (and female) in the school to climb into their uterus. That might constitute disruption...just a little. However, nowhere did I see mention of the pictures being even close to that crazy. For all we know, the girls got naked and took a picture, and I don't see how this is anything but an embarrassing (or hilarious, depending on who you ask) act. Were they threatening something? Did they wave a gun at the camera? Did they claim that they were going to spread STD's all over the school?

 If they did it at cheer practice, then fine. Suspend their privileges. They didn't, and that school has no right to anything at all. You can barely do anything except tell a student that they are being watched if they get busted for weed off campus because it didn't happen at school.

 Besides, it's almost funny to see how the school backfired their intentions. If a girl flashes her boobs on camera and the entire school knows, then one of two things happens:
1) The girls get completely embarrassed in front of their peers and learn to be way more careful when waving their stuff around, or
2) The girls were sluts anyway.

 Well, congratulations. You've already succeeded in drawing attention to them, glorifying the whole thing, but now you've given them reason to be proud and justified. This helps them and your school how, exactly? Digg It Stumble it ! Reddit