Before you update your status, post a photo or send out a tweet, you may want to consider situations like the one that Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps found himself in during the winter of 2009. Phelps lost several endorsements and was suspended from USA Swimming for three months when pictures of him smoking marijuana were leaked.
The case of New Hampshire student Shayne Dell’isola is another prime example; she was suspended from school for five days after posting, “I wish Osama bin Laden had killed my teacher instead of 3,000 people in the twin towers,” on Facebook.
Similarly, 10 students from Coon Rapids, Minnesota were suspended for publishing threatening and harassing comments online, which led to an escalating conflict and a physical altercation in school.
These situations are controversial because they all occurred off-campus, where students used Facebook and other websites to post pictures, interact with their peers or update statuses. With the rise of social media, there has been much argument and dispute concerning whether the off-campus actions of a student affect their on-campus lives, and more importantly, whether or not a school organization should be allowed to punish a student for their transgressions committed online and off-campus.
“The district has a policy which basically states that if you do something outside of school that can disrupt school activities or interfere with the learning process, then the school has the right or ability to discipline you for that, or discuss it with you,” Director of Technology Karl Fisch said.
According to the Littleton Public Schools’ Code of Conduct, “Behavior on or off school property … may lead to suspension or expulsion.”
Students can be suspended for “derogatory statements addressed publicly to others that can precipitate disruption of the school program or incite violence.”
In today’s fast evolving technological age, there has been an increase in incidents where schools have been forced to get involved when online issues have been brought to their attention.
“Incidents like these happen frequently enough that it’s not a surprise anymore, but it’s fairly low level in the sense that somebody’s calling someone else a name and just being mean,” Fisch said. “That’s happened since high schools have existed, it’s just more intense because it’s online.”
Recently, schools across the nation have struggled to determine when it is and is not appropriate for schools to intervene in these types of situations.
“There are several cases in court where lawmakers are trying to figure out where that line is between what is and is not appropriate, and some courts are saying there is a pretty high bar to show that online actions are disrupting school and other judges are saying if it’s even a little bit of disruption, that’s a problem,” Fisch said. “I think that we’re still evolving in terms of how that law is going to turn out.”
Schools are struggling to determine at what age students can and should be held accountable for their online actions.
“We’re still in that transition period where people are trying to figure out at what point people should be responsible for their online actions,” Fisch said. “Nobody really knows the answer yet. It’s similar to deciding whether someone is getting tried as an adult versus tried as a child. You know, at some point, if you did it, you should own up to it.”
Online bullying has become more and more common on social networks, and it is situations like these in which the administration often gets involved.
Students are considering possible consequences before posting online because their posts become part of their permanent digital footprint. This footprint is often used and examined by college admission officers and potential employers.
Compared to previous generations, for today’s teenagers, everything is more open, public and permanent.
“Now when you screw up, often there’s an online record of it, there is some kind of copy of it,” Fisch said. “That picture you posted from a party you shouldn’t have, or the stupid insults you said and they’re still there, and people don’t forget because they can go back.”
First impressions are often critical, and with online profiles and the abundance of personal information that can be found online, students should be mindful about what they post, especially when so many first impressions now occur online, often without people even knowing who is viewing their profile.
“Again, when I was growing up, first impressions were, you met somebody, you made a first impression. Now often the first impression you make on someone is digital,” Fisch said. “So whether that’s a college admissions officer, a future employer or someone who gets to know you online based on your work before they get to meet you face to face, you want to put your best self forward. You don’t want them to find the stupid things you put online; you want them to find the good things online.”
Monitoring your online profile can be critical because of the number of people who will look at your online profile, or who will Google you, such as college admission officers, future employers, friends, family and even people you are dating.
According to Kaplan Test Prep’s Survey of College Admissions Officers, 85% of college admissions officers said that they have used Facebook to recruit students, which allows the officers access to a student’s profile.
“I think you have to assume that anybody who you’re going to have any type of relationship with, whether it’s a business relationship or personal relationship, is going to do that,” Fisch said.
However, not all admission officers and employers use this ability when considering a candidate.
“We don’t do research or look up students at all unless they are applying for financial aid,” a representative from Metro State College said.
As students prepare for college and jobs, one wonders if it is possible to rid an online profile of negative or unfavorable content.
However, one can try to build the positive aspects and limit the negative results that a search engine like Google would return.
“There are certainly online reputation companies that will try to do that, and there are also lots and lots of people who work with you to build that positive profile so that hopefully the positive stuff outweighs the negative,” Fisch said.
“Be thoughtful about what you do online,” Fisch said. “Assume that it could show up on the front page of the Denver Post.”