Expelled from Pre-School for Facebook Post

A four-year-old boy was just recently expelled from his pre-school for a Facebook post made by his mother, Ashley Habat. According to Habat, she was running late to drop her son, Will, off at Sonshine Christian Academy on picture day. The mother mentioned to the administrator during check-in that the school did not give her enough notice about picture day and that she wasn't prepared for it. The administrator made minimal comment, saying "well, we put it in his folder last week." Later that day, the woman felt the need to vent via Facebook, posting a (what she dubbed as "private") status that read, "why is it that every single day there is something new I dislike about Will's school? Are my standards really too high or are people working in the education field really just that ignorant?" and tagged the school in the post. The next morning, she was asked to stop by the office after dropping her son off and received a letter of dismissal from the school, stating that the parent-school relationship was not very good and that her son was thereby expelled.  This has not been the only case of students being punished by schools for social media posts. This past spring, several Texas high-schoolers were suspended for favoriting "HS Confessions" tweets on Twitter, along with many other cases.

I think that sometimes schools abuse their power by trying to control the social media of students and families of their students. How do you feel about schools monitoring student social media? Why do you think they do this?

Link to Story

You need to be a member of History 360 to add comments!

Join History 360

Replies are closed for this discussion.

Replies

  • Schools have too much power over students and if the parents don't like the school then the student doesn't have to take the fall.

  • I don't think they should really have THAT much power over the students. Some might say they are just trying to keep an eye out for bullying and other things that could maybe "affect the school", but others might say they are doing it to "spy" on the students outside of school.

    I don't think that the students social media is really any of the schools business because if it isn't happening in school then its not their problem. 

  • I agree. Like I think people should be able to post what they want but that she tagged the school in the post I think that was a dumb decision. If it has to do with the school then yes I understand but if like the students from the Texas school got suspended for favoriting tweet that is so stupid.. I think.

  • I think that schools monitoring what the students are doing is good, but they sometimes take it too far.  Such as expelling a student for what the mother did on facebook or because some teenagers liked "HS Confessions".  There are times when it is necessary for the school to be looking over the students social media such as if someone told the principal or the guidance teacher or who ever about something that happened online such as bullying.   Other than that they should not be monitoring the students and what they do on social media. 

  • I think the school is dumb for expelling the kid who cares what the parent says don't pay any attention to the mom.

  • That is not right to expel the kid. Schools should only monitor if there is harm being on social media. They need to back off if people post personal things or complaints. Favor-ting something on twtirrer isn't a reason to be suspended. 

    • I agree that schools do need to back down off of student social media because kids should be allowed to post personal things without fear of the school monitoring it - social media, while not private, should be something we are allowed to enjoy without the school getting into it.

  • I don't think they should be allowed to do it its none of their business but she had tagged the school in this. I think they do this to see what kids are doing.

  • I feel like this is wrong for schools to monitor the students  social media but then again the woman tagged the school in the post along with its a christian school so I think they do this because of they feel like they should. 

  • On the part of watching social media, you are posted something on the internet. If you want privacy and don't want anyone to see what you say, turn off your computer and go outside. The internet has been about robbing people of privacy since August 6, 1991.

    As for the school, I think that expelling the child for something the boy's mother said if an over-reaction. People have said much worse things about the school system in a lot more open places. Even a lot of the teachers I know have made comments more 'offensive' than that. They should learn to deal with the criticism and keep along their business, or try to change things up and see if people like that better.

This reply was deleted.
eXTReMe Tracker