Teachers Defend Against Students' Prank Web sites

I find this topic disgusting. I remember a few teachers that I didn't like, and a few that I did. But I would NEVER do something like this to ANYONE. Not even my worse enemy. Some one needs to get out a paddle or a belt.. maybe even a cat-o-nine tails. Where are the parents? Reminds me of the commercial where the people are sitting around a table and have the speaker phone on talking to their boss.. when it is over they press the mute button and make sarcastic remarks to and about the boss, then the repair man comes in to repair the mute button that isn't working.. People should learn that what goes around comes around. Even in wishful thinking.
Margie

Teachers Defend Against Students' Prank Web sites

Teachers and principals are often targets of their students' online wrath and pranks. In Charlotte, N.C., a teacher was falsely accused online of being a pedophile.

The Christian Science Monitor reports:

In one case, a teacher reported receiving a large number of propositional phone calls and e-mails from gay men after a student posted the teacher's name and contact information on a gay website.

Another incident involved a parent filming a teacher's backside during a class skit and then posting the clip on the Internet to the strains of Van Halen's "Hot for Teacher." The site was removed and no charges were filed.

Now the teachers are striking back. The Christian Science Monitor article continues:

Tired of fat jokes and false accusations of teacher-lounge partying or worse, teachers and principals are fighting back against digital ridicule and slander by their students -- often with civil lawsuits and long-term suspensions or permanent expulsions.

A National School Boards Association (NSBA) study says that as many as one-third of American teens regularly post inappropriate language or manipulated images on the Web. Most online pranks deride other students. But a NSBA November 2006 survey reported 26 percent of teachers and principals being targeted.

"Kids have been pulling pranks on teachers and principals since there have been schools in the U.S., but now there's an edge to it -- the tone and tenor of some of these attacks cross the line," says Nora Carr, a spokeswoman for Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools in North Carolina.

In the growing backlash against these cybergoofs, however, real-world norms of propriety are being pitted against the uncertain jurisdictions of the Digital Age. A new test may be emerging on how far online lampooning can go, say First Amendment experts -- and to what extent schools can control off-campus pranks.

Sometimes the abuse comes in the form of fake MySpace pages or YouTube videos. Click here for more background.

It would be interesting to hear from local teachers who have suffered from online student pranks. Your local teacher's union might be a starting place.

Here are the teacher/professor rating sites you should know about:

• RateMyTeachers.com
• RateMyProfessors.com
• MTVU's "Professors Strike Back" feature
• Facebook application for Rate My Professors