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The House Republicans want to make it easier to bust sexual predators online and to crack down on kids who post online threats.
House Minority Leader Tom Cross is proposing, among other things, to let school districts discipline students who post threats on social networking sites like MySpace.com and Facebook.com – even if they do it from home and on their own time.
But that has some worried that overzealous school boards will expel children for criticism of teachers and administrators that’s protected by the First Amendment.
While poking fun at principals has happened during lunch periods for generations, the technology to make those harsh jabs internationally available is fairly new.
‘’It is not a threat to simply mock or make fun of the principal,'’ said Ed Yohnka, a spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois. ‘’I suspect we all said some things. We just didn’t have a MySpace account.'’
Cross claims he is “sensitive” to the issue of going too far with his legislation. HB 38 is summarized as follows:
Amends the School Code. Provides that a school board may, in accordance with certain administrative procedures, authorize the suspension of a student or expel a student if (i) that student has been determined to have made an explicit threat on an Internet web site against a school employee, a student, or any school-related personnel, (ii) the Internet web site through which the threat was made is a site that was accessible within the school at the time the threat was made or was available to third parties who worked or studied within the school grounds at the time the threat was made, and (iii) the threat could be reasonably interpreted as bearing a reasonable relationship to the safety and security of the threatened individual because of his or her duties or educational status inside the school.
Here’s the rest of the packagage:
* HB 37 - Indecent solicitation
* HB 39 - Eavesdropping exemption
* HB 40 - Sex offender law applies to distributing “harmful material” to a child
* HB 41 - Increase penalties for harassing and obscene communications
* HB 42 - Requires police to notify interested parties by e-mail when a sex offender changes residence, employment, etc.
posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Jan 24, 07 @ 8:13 am
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“[if] the threat could be reasonably interpreted as bearing a reasonable relationship to the safety”
I think the only way to make the reach of this law broader would be to replace this language with “if they wanna.”
– SCAM
Comment by So-Called "Austin Mayor" Wednesday, Jan 24, 07 @ 8:55 am
Tom Cross seems to have done a yeoman job on this important legislation. Wish that he’d Cross the Aisle - and join common sense Democrats like Mary Flowers whose HIV Testing for high school physicals would be a boon to Illinois parents, kids and the Medical community. Ed Yohnka and the nice folks at ACLU are no doubt wrapping themselves in the Constitution in preparation for their catapulting of common sense: Tom and Mary tell Ed and the kids at ACLU -Te audire non possum. Musa sapientum fixa est in aure
Comment by Pat Hickey Wednesday, Jan 24, 07 @ 8:58 am
“It is not a threat to simply mock or make fun of the principalâ€
Good point, Ed. And since the legislation specifically deals with “threats,†and not mocking, I don’t see what the problem is here. It has always been wrong and punishable to threaten a teacher verbally, or to scrawl it out on a bathroom stall. This is just about keeping up and getting specific about technology, and I applaud Cross for this effort. I also hope that the General Assembly does more to deal with the online dangers to teens, one of which I explored over at my blog: http://gopartisan.blogspot.com/2007/01/hey-britney-and-lindsay-turned-out.html#links
Comment by grand old partisan Wednesday, Jan 24, 07 @ 9:00 am
We live in a new age. Go for it. We’ll fix any problems that come up. Doing nothing is not an option.
Comment by VanillaMan Wednesday, Jan 24, 07 @ 9:15 am
Don’t school boards have the authority to do this now? If you credibly threaten anyone in a school it seems to me that would fall under the criminal conduct and schools could act anyway regardless of where the threat was made.
Comment by ArchPundit Wednesday, Jan 24, 07 @ 9:23 am
Cross’s district is rapidly changing. With all the new sprawl, there are lots of young new families with children. Not that he has to impress them–he ran unopposed in the last election.
Comment by Squideshi Wednesday, Jan 24, 07 @ 9:46 am
Amazingly enough, I agree with the Archpundit.
Of course, school administrators and teachers are bellyaching now after spending megabucks, at least in the suburbs, on pushing computers into grade schools at the cost of less time devoted to learning math and reading.
And maybe this overkill bill will propel the school choice movement.
Comment by Backyard Conservative Wednesday, Jan 24, 07 @ 11:12 am
No new laws for problems already covered. Lawmakers may pass new laws but they aren’t required to do so.
Comment by i d Wednesday, Jan 24, 07 @ 2:05 pm