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in support of free expression
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©Copyright 2005 NCAC
WEB DESIGN
Jeanne Criscola Criscola Design
free speech first amendment censorship
7 Parsippany H.S. students suspended for postings, photos on MySpace.com
BY ROB JENNINGS
DAILY RECORD
PARSIPPANY -- Seven Parsippany High School students will serve 5-day suspensions starting next Monday for setting up two MySpace.com accounts filled with photos and "vulgarities" about classmates and teachers, interim Superintendent James Dwyer said on Wednesday.
The students used cell phone cameras to photograph classmates and school employees without their permission, a violation of the K-12 district's policy, Dwyer said.
A teacher surfing the Internet stumbled across one of the MySpace sites two weeks ago, Dwyer said, prompting an investigation by high school principal Anthony Sciaino and the school's police resource officer.
Students confessed
All seven students -- two freshmen, three sophomores and two juniors -- admitted to their involvement last week and agreed to remove the sites from the Internet, Dwyer said. The group included both boys and girls, he said.
Dwyer did not say how many photos were posted, nor did he outline the nature of the comments. He also didn't explain how administrators were able to identify the students involved in the postings.
The suspensions will start Monday, because classes are in recess this week.
Parents of all seven suspended students were notified and did not contest the punishments, Dwyer said.
Sciaino and township police Officer Tony Bonavitacola, who is assigned to the high school,could not be reached Wednesday. Township Police Sgt. Yvonne Christiano said Bonavitacola did not file a report in connection with the incident.
Not speech issue
Dwyer, who defended a classroom mock war crimes "trial" of President Bush undertaken by a Parsippany High School senior class several weeks ago, said there was no contradiction in subsequently punishing students over Internet postings of surreptitiously obtained photos and "profanity."
"This is not a free-speech issue," said Dwyer. "They were using photos of students and staff without permission."
Dwyer did not describe the comments and the photos that were posted on the MySpace pages.
Names of the suspended students were not disclosed.
A parent who said she knows the students defended them Wednesday and described the MySpace sites, which she did not see, as intended to be humorous, not malicious.
"These are not bad kids ... it seems blown out of proportion," said the parent, Sue DeJessa.
Content mystery
Just what had been published on the withdrawn sites was the subject of heavy speculation on the Internet and elsewhere on Wednesday.
DeJessa, relaying a description of one site, said that it included a "not very nice" statement about the principal and a photo of new heating equipment in a box.
Of the five-day suspension, "I do think it's a little harsh," DeJessa said.
Akanksha Karwar, a Parsippany High School junior, supported the suspensions, saying, "Free Speech, OK -- but there has to be a limit."
Posting photos of students without permission definitely crossed a line, Karwar said.
"That's just totally unethical behavior ... Don't insult your colleagues like that," said Karwar, who said she doesn't know the suspended students and didn't see the postings.
Other Web comment
A list called "You Know You Go To Parsippany High School when ...," featuring more than three dozen, oft-critical comments about school employees and student life, was accessible on another Internet site on Wednesday evening. The list had been posted on March 27. It could not be determined whether all or part of the list also appeared on the MySpace sites.
Kevin Bankston, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco, said it was hard to gauge the reasonableness of the suspensions without knowing more about what was shown on the MySpace sites.
"They have to have proof that it was causing a serious material disruption in the classroom," Bankston said, whose group advocates "digital rights."
Dwyer said that, while the comments on the sites were objectionable, that the posted photos were the bigger problem. What the students were actually shown doing in the photos, he said, was irrelevant.
Legal concern
"If they're pictures of children, I don't care if they're jumping up and down or sleeping at their desk," he said, adding that the lack of parental permission could have posed a liability issue.
The school board had limited awareness of the situation. School board President Robert Perlett said on Tuesday evening that Dwyer informed him late last week that "there was something that had happened on MySpace." Perlett said he didn't request additional information.
MySpace.com is one of the most viewed Internet domains in the United States. It calls itself a social networking system for anyone 14 years or older, utilizing Web profiles, blogs, instant messaging, e-mail, music downloads, photo galleries and chat rooms
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