NEWS> RESOURCES: School board: Teachers Personal Web Site is Grounds for Dismissal
- From: Gleason Sackmann <gleason@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: NetHappenings <nethappenings@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 02 May 2003 08:22:46 -0500
**************************************************************
Net Happenings - From Educational CyberPlayGround
**************************************************************
Date: Fri, 2 May 2003 09:17:11 -0400 (EDT)
From: "David P. Dillard" <jwne@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
In business one may find the glass ceiling. In elementary secondary
education, teachers may live somewhat in glass houses. The lives they
lead off the job may be considered as part of how they are assessed on the
job if certain moral and ethical lines are crossed. How teachers conduct
themselves in what they do and say off of the job in political, social and
publication circles may be held against them in the court of the school
board. This desire to enforce certain moral principles on the publically
visible lives of teachers off the job may come into a serious clash with
Constitutional principles like the freedom of speech and expression as it
would appear to have done in Western Pennsylvania in connection with this
teacher's web page.
-------------------------
School board: Teachers Personal Web Site is Grounds for Dismissal
>From eSchool News Staff and Wire Service Reports
April 29, 2003
<http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/ssunreg.cfm?ArticleID=4374&ul=%2Fnews%2Fs%20h%20ow%
20Story%2Ecfm%3FArticleID%3D4374>
For those who prefer a short story to a novel, here is a shortened
shortcut to this news story:
<http://makeashorterlink.com/?Y2CA32B64>
Excerpt of full story found at the above link:
A high school teacher could be out of a job in a dispute over a personal
web site he created before he was hired by a western Pennsylvania school
district. But the states teachers union has vowed to defend his right to
free expression on the web, arguing that the site has nothing to do with
his in-school behavior.
The Grove City Area School District placed music teacher and assistant
band director Dan Konnen, 24, of Hermitage, Pa., on an unpaid suspension
in March when students found his personal web site, which contains jokes
about genitalia and scatological references extracted from the
controversial Comedy Central cartoon series South Park, as well as other
sources.
When visited by an eSchool News reporter in April, the site said it was
created in December 1997 and last updated in September 2001, meaning
Konnen had updated it at least once since being hired by the school
district in August 2001.
Pennsylvania State Education Association attorney Tod Park, who is
representing Konnen, said the web site doesnt contain pornography and
Konnen didnt tell students about it.
-----------------------
These websites are listed in the article:
Dan Konnens web site
http://www.geocities.com/d_konnen/index2.html
Grove City Area School District
http://www.grovecity.k12.pa.us
McGuire Woods LLP
http://www.mcguirewoods.com
-----------------------
This is by no means a new issue and these links may be of interest to some
of the members of this discussion group in this regard. It has been an
issue for the private outside of school web pages of teachers and of
students which have come under fire by those who rule school districts
with an iron book of morality. On K-12 campus a related issue is of course
filtering and of course the monitoring in school of student internet use.
Here are some websites that contain news, documents or discussion of the
off campus activities of those involved with schools that have entered the
freedom of speech arena.
STUDENT INTERNET FREE SPEECH RIGHTS
<http://www.umkc.edu/safe-school/documents/monofs.pdf>
A lesson plan for students on this topic:
Freedom of Speech on the Internet
Valorie Williams
Community School District 5
New York, NY
Topic:
Does Internet filtering violate the First Amendment?
<http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/crit3/williams1.html>
Student's Free Speech Rights and the Interent
<http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Teachers/studentfreespeach.html>
SURVEY - SCHOOL POLICY - NET & WEBSITES
<http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Technology/Policy_Survey.html>
American Library Association
Office for Intellectual Freedom
<http://www.ala.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Our_Association/Offices/Intellectual_Freedom3/Default622.htm>
A Shorter Link
<http://makeashorterlink.com/?T2DB16B64>
Pennsylvania School Libraries Association
Section of Page on Intellectual Freedom
<http://www.psla.org/links/links.php3#freedom>
A WebQuest on Laws and Their Implications for Schools
<http://mason.gmu.edu/~dspragu1/lawquest.html>
[Includes a section of links on intellectual freedom and a section
regarding protecting children on the internet]
The Constitutionality of Schools' Sanctioning Students
for Derogatory E-Mails and Web Pages
Phil McGargill
Cyber-Law Seminar
April 2, 2002 [20020409]
<http://www.uiowa.edu/~cyberlaw/cls02/pmcgarg1.html>
PATHFINDER
Censorship in Schools
<http://courses.unt.edu/chandler/PATHFINDERS/spring1998/CENSORSHIP/pathfind.htm>
Academic Freedom Of Individual Professors
And Higher Education Institutions:
The Current Legal Landscape
Donna R. Euben, Staff Counsel
May, 2002
American Association of University Professors
[Obviously College Level Rather Than K-12]
<http://www.aaup.org/Com-a/aeuben.HTM>
Creating and Defending Civility and Safety in Public Schools:
A Legal Guide
for Teachers, Administrators, and the Community
<http://www.communityinterest.org/alliance/safe_schools-draft.htm>
Free Expression After September 11th - An Online Index
National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC)
<http://www.ncac.org/issues/freeex911.html>
[FS_ANNOUNCE] POLITICAL CHILL IN THE GREAT WHITE NORTH
<http://www.freedomsite.org/pipermail/fs_announce/2002/000862.html>
Free Speech in the News
<http://www.matrixmasters.com/takecharge/speech/speech.html>
To state that Nancy Willard has posted on web pages and discussion groups
content that is relevant to the issues of freedom of speech and censorship
in schools would be kind of like observing that there is some water in the
Atlantic Ocean (those living closer may wish to substitute Pacific for
Atlantic in this sentence). I have decided not to link to any individual
documents on this topic that she has authored or that discuss her work in
this area. I have decided to do one better. This is a link to a search
of AllTheWeb for pertinent documents that she has published on this and
related topics. As with any search of the web there may be some other
links in here that are off topic or worse and there may be other Nancy
Willards out there. Nevertheless this link below should contribute much
on topic material.
Search Strategy:
"nancy willard" and freedom
<http://www.alltheweb.com/search?cat=web&cs=utf-8&q=%22nancy+willard%22+and+freedom&_sb_lang=en>
A shortened link:
<http://makeashorterlink.com/?L6DC32B64>
And for those of you who are big Google fans:
<http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22nancy+willard%22+and+freedom&btnG=Google+Search>
A shortened link:
<http://makeashorterlink.com/?O1FC12B64>
I hope that these resource links will contribute to the fuel for thinking
processes about the issues raised by the Western Pennsylvania case that
are of ongoing concern to all of us in the field of education regarding
our rights to expression of professional and other views and ideas both on
and off of the job.
Sincerely,
David Dillard Research Librarian
david@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
ECP RingLeader
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/ringleaders/davidd.html
Temple University
(215) 204 - 4584
jwne@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>
EDUCATIONAL CYBERPLAYGROUND
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com
<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>
ADVERTISE REACH THE EDUCATION MARKET
GET FREE EDUCATION VENDOR DIRECTORY LISTING
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Directory/default.asp
Net Happenings,K12 Newsletters, Network Newsletters, New-list
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Community/index.html
HOT LIST OF SCHOOLS ONLINE
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Schools/default.asp
SERVICES
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/PS/Home_Products.html
<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>
Other related posts:
- » NEWS> RESOURCES: School board: Teachers Personal Web Site is Grounds for Dismissal
