The Right to Trash...
" When speech is merely offensive, and taking place outside of school hours and property, principals and teachers should ignore it-- and think of it as the price we pay for living in a free country."
A recent court ruling decided that students have the constitutional right make fun of their teachers online. My educator mind is wondering--- could this type of online harrassement interfer with learning. If there's a negative buzz online within your classroom (about you the teacher), won't it eventually find its way into the classroom? When one person's right interfer with the another person's... what then?
Why Students Have the Right to Mock Teachers Online
"I should say here, because some in Washington like to dream up ways to control the Internet, that we don't need to 'control' freedom of speech, we need to control ourselves." ~ Peggy Nnonan
One of our most basic human rights is the Right to a Safe Place. What if the tools that mediate the face-to-face world and the digital world, facilitate an unsafe space for someone? a student... a teacher? This question led me to The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a 63 year old document. How does this treatise apply in a digital world? Several phrases from the Declaration jumped out at me:
+ All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
+ Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
+ No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
+ No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.
