by Kira Yates ’16

Recently, Superintendent Joshua Starr wrote an open letter to all MCPS parents addressing the issue of cyber-bullying on social media.  This letter came as a follow-up to many tweets from students urging Starr to cancel school on December 9 and 10 due to the emergency weather conditions.

“Many of these tweets were offensive and disturbing.  Some were threatening to me and others,” wrote Starr.  He asked that parents “talk to [their] children on an ongoing basis about what’s appropriate and what’s not appropriate to do online.”

Quickly becoming a prevalent issue, bullying and other inappropriate tweets have been seen across the county and at Sherwood.  The school only has authority over social media if there is an issue or case involving a situation that is impacting the students or the school. Students can get in trouble by putting content on social media for anything from cyber-bullying to tweeting about a fight that is going to be after school to even tweeting answers to a test.

The school administration can learn about a harmful or disruptive tweet many different ways.  “Sometimes it comes as an anonymous tip, or we’ll get an anonymous email; sometimes parents, and other times students,” said Acting Principal James Allrich.

Allrich also stressed that the issue is not Twitter or any other form of social media, but the actual content that students post.  When these inappropriate tweets do occur, students can receive a range of punishment for their misuse, from a conversation to detention to a possible suspension.  In these situations “we always start with an investigation, and we try to be as honest as possible,” said Allrich.

Although students do have rights to privacy, posting on a public social media account means anyone, including school administrators, can see it.  However, school administrators only look at social media if they are notified of a problem. “We don’t have time to go through everyone’s Twitter account.  I don’t think that would be appropriate [to monitor students’ twitter accounts].  Students’ privacy needs to be respected,” said Allrich.

Referencing the incident with Starr, Allrich noted that MCPS is establishing protocols for the usage of social media. Allrich believes that most students are being responsible and doing the right thing, and the few who are misusing the tools, need to be addressed.

Using the term “cyber- civility,” Allrich believes it is “important that as a school, not just as a high school, but as a school system we start to teach students how to be socially and technically responsible. I think ‘cyber- civility’ is what we need to teach kids.”   It is important that students are responsible and know how to properly use the technology.

Allrich warned that students need to be extremely conscious about the social media they use. He gave the example of tweeting about the time and location of a school fight and the irresponsibility of the school if it did not intervene in such a situation.

Should schools monitor students’ twitters? Click here for a pro/con insight on this topic.