Some Thoughts and Observations

School Litigation. With classrooms closing for the summer around the country, the likelihood of traumatic events thankfully recedes for a few months (in schools, that is, but not necessarily in churches, malls, manufacturers, etc.). But other American institutions grind on.

In the headlines below, for instance, are several links to articles about ongoing school-related litigation. Increasingly, students and parents are suing school districts, administrators, and individual educators for failing to intervene when students were threatened with harm, including cases involving school shootings, sexual assault by educators, cyberbullying by classmates, and so on.

It will be interesting to see how such litigation affects the use of social media monitoring and other types of on-campus surveillance. Such systems can be very useful for alerting school officials to potential problems; at the same time, they can just as easily produce a trove of information for plaintiffs that school officials knew what was happening and failed to take action. These competing concerns are definitely worth discussing before deciding to roll out the latest hot item in monitoring technology.

Questions Worthy of Further Discussion. Also worthy of discussion are the following questions raised by this week's headlines:

  • Can an offer of free ice cream help demonstrate how misinformation spreads?
  • What are the acceptable boundaries, if any, in allowing students to incorporate nudity in their art photography projects?
  • Should states consider adopting educator social media guidelines similar to those recently adopted by Arizona?
  • What can or should districts do to protect educators and administrators from digital mobs?
  • Should a teacher be fired for sharing a photo of a bathroom wall threat with parents and the media?
  • Why are teachers on the frontlines of the culture wars and what should be done about it?
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The Cybertraps Podcast: Week of June 13, 2022

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TCP Episode 130 — Cybertraps: Educator Vacation and Beach Photos

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The Cybertraps Podcast is a production of The Center for Cyberethics, a 501(c)(3) independent, non-partisan educational institute dedicated to the study and promotion of cyberethics as a positive social force through research, curricula development, publishing and media, professional training, and public advocacy. Click here to donate.

Noteworthy C4E Headlines for the Week of June 13, 2022

19 June 2022

US_Washington

18 June 2022

US_Michigan

17 June 2022

US_Louisiana
US_Oklahoma (see related story on 15 June)
US_Wisconsin

16 June 2022

Canada
US / National
US / National
US_Georgia
US_Hawaii
US_Mississippi
US_New Jersey
US_New Jersey
US_New Mexico
US_Texas

15 June 2022

US / National
US / National
US_Alabama
US_Delaware
US_Illinois
US_Oklahoma

14 June 2022

US_Arizona
US_Michigan
US_New York
US_Texas
US_Washington

13 June 2022

England
US_Kentucky
US_New York
US_Oregon
US_South Carolina
US_South Carolina

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