It’s not hard to see that people these days are sensitive about any kind of perceived threat (like my shoes at the airport :-) and school administrators seem to be hypersensitive. So where is that every elusive line between student rights and school security? I think this is an example of crossing the line in the wrong direction.

A student in Las Vegas included some items in his personal blog that administrators at his high school said was "not school appropriate". For this he received an in-school suspension and was transfered to another school. The transfer was justified by the fact that his zone varient to attend this school was no longer valid, a situation the school had failed to notice (or ignored) before the blog entries.

This particular case stinks for a number of reasons. First, the punishment was administered despite the fact that his postings were not part of a school assignment or posted on a school server. In addition the school didn’t file a report with the police, which indicates that they really didn’t feel the student was a threat. And the student posted under a screen name on the site; administrators only found out who he was when he admitted owning the site during questioning. On top of all this another student at the same school was questioned about similar “threats” on her blog but was not disciplined.

It sounds to me like the school had it in for this kid for some reason and this was just the catalyst to get him. But beyond the inconsistant discipline, this is another example where schools are not paying attention to and trying to understand current trends. In this case it’s also a matter of crossing the line to over-reaction.