Facebook Photos Land Eden Prairie Kids in Trouble 626
slim-t writes "The Star Tribune is reporting that students have been disciplined for photos of them on Facebook. 'Eden Prairie High School administrators have reprimanded more than 100 students and suspended some from sports and other extracurricular activities after obtaining Facebook photos of students partying, several students said Tuesday.' Is the school right to do this? My opinion is that the students should know not to post pictures of yourself breaking the law."
I'd just like to know what all those administrators are doing cruising Facebook pages looking at the students in their school.
Re:Hah. [[ Supposedly pics were delivered (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Yeah, right. (Score:3, Informative)
Most schools I know of have codes of conduct which prohibit such behavior, whether in a school function or not. At a minimum that code of conduct typically states something like "you shall obey the law at all times".
So, obligation no, right yes.
Re:Rights not online (Score:1, Informative)
For them it's probably the ultimate "cool" thing, to be illegal and have fun and they get too drunk and don't know their limits.
If there was no stupid law like the one you have there in US, all those kids would be a bit more used to drinking and wouldn't get drunk and act like they acted. They would learn that drinking too much is not always good and they would be a bit more responsible.
I have first drank alcohol at Christmas when I was around 7 years old. My mother has a glass a wine and she let me wet my lips a bit. I drank about a third of a glass of wine and I got a bit dizzy and then my mother told me that drinking is not good when you're young and drinking too much is also not good, and I remembered that.
I really realized that a few months later when I found in the kitchen a 250 ml bottle of Coke that actually had whiskey inside. Naturally, it was about 60% alcohol so it burned my neck and got almost drunk from only one mouthful.
But, I realized one thing, alcohol is dangerous and I should not drink a lot at the parties.
Later on, in school, from 13-14 years old, I drank a beer at a party, maybe two, when I started to get dizzy I stopped, but at the same time I started to get used to alcohol. Never ever got drunk.
So you see, the idea is that I didn't act crazy like you people, I'm normal and I didn't need any laws, just a bit of education from parents and self experience.
Mind you, it's illegal for people older than 18years to drink here but it's also illegal to drive, to go to army and other things. One age for all, that represents that you are mature and you can make decisions for yourself.
You can go to army from 16 (I think), you can drive (you can kill people while driving, such responsibility), yet you can't have a glass of wine until you're 21. Don't you think that's a bit stupid?
Kill the stupid law, educate kids about alcohol and what does to you from a younger age, and you won't see these issues so often.
PS. It IS "your rights online", you're a citizen of US and laws/rights are for you. It's within your rights to request a rethink of this law.
Re:Yeah, right. (Score:3, Informative)
http://kstp.com/article/stories/S307125.shtml?cat=1 [kstp.com]
One of the best parts is that, in their defense, one of the students said some of the pictures were over 4 years old! So if they're seniors that would be pix of them drinking as freshman.
Re:Don't they have anything better to do? (Score:5, Informative)
340A.503 PERSONS UNDER 21; ILLEGAL ACTS.
Subd. 3. Possession. It is unlawful for a person under the age of 21 years to possess any
alcoholic beverage with the intent to consume it at a place other than the household of the person's
parent or guardian. Possession at a place other than the household of the parent or guardian creates
a rebuttable presumption of intent to consume it at a place other than the household of the parent
or guardian. This presumption may be rebutted by a preponderance of the evidence.
Re:Don't they have anything better to do? (Score:5, Informative)
Here in the UK you are not allowed to buy alcohol until you are 18 but you are allowed to drink on private property from the age of 5.
Re:Don't they have anything better to do? (Score:1, Informative)
I'm from EP (Score:5, Informative)
"I'd just like to know what all those administrators are doing cruising Facebook pages looking at the students in their school."
Short answer: They weren't.
An anonymous person stopped by the high school and dropped off a CD containing the images saved off numerous Facebook sites.
Links as well, I believe, but am not sure. Of course speculation is that it was some kid who wasn't invited; I rather speculate it was a parent who was sick of the hypocrisy of the rules never being enforced, and dropped it off to confront the administration and FORCE them to act.
And for the Europeans who feel our 'policies on alcohol are bizarre': let's remember - to participate in student athletics in Minnesota, EVERY student must sign a pledge to entirely abstain from alcohol or tobacco as a student athlete, and (as I recall, it was 20 years ago I was in EPHS) even to avoid being PRESENT at such activities. Say what you want about the motivation behind the rule, the simple fact is that every one of them signed such a promise and are now blatantly proved to be breaking it. Busted.
My cynical view is that I would like to know WHEN this CD was dropped off. EP is a perennial powerhouse dominant in the local football league...coincidentally football season *just* ended 6 weeks ago. So no real penalties nor damage to the football team.
Re:Don't they have anything better to do? (Score:5, Informative)
As far as taking pictures of doing something illegal, who cares, like one girl in the article said, they're just PICTURES..they don't prove the kids were DRINKING and even if they did, unless you are caught COMMITTING the act, the police can do nothing (except maybe stake out your party spot for next time!) if I was an enterprising kid, I'd take a bunch of pictures of my friends with EMPTY cans...and call a lawyer!! again, the administrator is getting into trouble here.
I understand the whole "teaching kids to be ethical" thing and "representing the school", but these are PUBLIC schools, no code of ethics applies to students required by law to go there except the LAW. Perhaps the principal could address the issue with PARENTS (who's job it is to raise kids!!!), but it's completely out of line to punish students for random events that happened sometime in the past... that reeks of corporate-fascism!!!
Re:My Two Cents (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Rights not online (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Kosher (Score:3, Informative)
Because when an 18 year old votes, there is zero chance they'll kill someone due to their inexperience with voting. The same cannot be said of a 16 (or 18) year old who gets their drivers license and to celebrate, gets drunk and goes driving.
Yeah, yeah, parental responsibility and all that. As a recent article on here related, teen brains lack impulse control. They don't have the same reasoning capability as someone twenty years older. Here's the CNN article [cnn.com] which talks about this subject.
For the record, roughly three times a week in my area there is a story of someone underage dying because they were driving drunk or someone who was a passenger in a car with someone who was underage and drunk while driving being killed. In fact, last year, there was a case where two passengers died in a car accident where the driver was underage, drunk and crossed into the oncoming lane where it ran headon into a minivan. A few of the people in the van died as well.
MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) was the driving force behind forcing states to raise their legal drinking age to 21 through government coercion (withholding of highway dollars). In theory, states don't have to have a drinking age of 21 but because states fund their operations through debt servicing rather than pay-as-you-go, they need all the money they can get and so go along with having a high drinking age compared to other countries.
Re:Don't they have anything better to do? (Score:2, Informative)
Bottom line is that it was pretty stupid either way. A greater number of corporations and I imagine colleges are looking at social networking sites.
Re:Kosher (Score:3, Informative)
MADD is a dangerous organization because they are truly a temperance society, as evidenced by their support of unreasonably low BAC limits under 0.10 that have not been scientifically proven to result in safer driving. They also support sobriety checkpoints, random searches, and other infringements of the fourth amendment.