I (Heart) Privacy

If people in this day in age don't realize that ANYTHING they post on the Internet is fair game...someone needs to slap them upside the head. Let me give a little back story to my rant...

A month ago I'm at home surfing the net trying to find a job(as usual) when on the Post Star's website I come across a story about how a freshman at the local high school was given after school detention for wearing a black bracelet that had big white letters saying "I (heart) Boobies". The phrase is used by the online group Keep A Breast Foundation, a not-for-profit group whose "mission is to help eradicate breast cancer by exposing young people to methods of prevention, early detection and support." The Keep A Breast people explain that the bracelets are intended for young women to take responsibility for their bodies. They say that many women develop a negative attitude toward their breasts and put so much energy into criticizing them or wishing they were different that they don't take the steps necessary for prevention of breast cancer. Sounds like a good thing, right?

Nowhere on the website do they explain what these bracelets are supposed to be doing for pimple faced high school freshman boys. What happened was a student(male) in a science class (yes-I know the teacher of the class and got her side of the story-on top of what I've read and seen on the news) wore the bracelet to school. She felt that the bracelet was inappropriate and asked that he take it off. All he had to do was take it off her in class, he could have easily put it back on after class, but-he refused. He offered a compromise of turning the bracelet inside out, but this was after he had already given the teacher attitude. He was sent to in-school detention, and then was assigned to after school detention for breaking the school's dress code. He was advised that he could no longer wear the bracelet to school. His mother, in my opinion-looking for her 15 minutes, called the local newspaper and television stations in a outrage that her son was "suspended" for breast cancer awareness. She bought him the bracelet after he asked for it for his birthday, not thinking...OH-this could be bad? She stated that he had a family member who has had breast cancer, but in my opinion, I highly doubt that was his motivation. The teacher stated she had an aunt pass away from breast cancer and found it very offensive.

OK-let's see....15 year old boy.....boobies. Yeah-his motivations were purely for breast cancer awareness.


How about - WAKE UP MOM! Stop letting your kids get away with everything and anything they want just so you can be "cool". Kids need a parent, not a friend.

OK-so this brings me to the topic du jour. At this same high school, there is now a new scandal. The assistant principal took a trip to Vegas during February break. He had some scandalous pictures taken of him cupping breasts...of wax figures. I shake my head and hold it in my hands. First of all....Hello! Does one NOT know how to use the privacy settings on social networks like FaceBook or MySpace? I am a daily user of FB, if you are not my friend, you cannot access my information, my pictures, my links, my ANYTHING. Secondly...if by some chance you DO visit Vegas and get your friends to take a "cool" picture of you cupping the breast of a Jessica Simpson wax figure...why would you post them on Facebook, or allow your friends to??? Hello...you or your friends are an idiot. So, what happened is, the mother of the student who was awarded after school detention and her friend have been keeping tabs on the district administrators (a.k.a. cyber stalking) and found the asst. Principal's facebook page and photos. What did they do first? Did they contact the school district? No...they contacted the media...THEN they contacted the district. Now, I am in no way condoning the actions of the asst. principal. But as a mother of a student in the district, as a substitute teacher who has worked in the district, I can say this-this particular asst. principal is a major backbone for the discipline of the school. Does he deserve to lose his job? I don't think so. According to the media, the facebook account has been deleted. I tried to search for his account-and came up with nothing. Not to mention, according to a list serve associated with the television station that first aired the story, the photos weren't posted on the Asst. Principal's page, but on a friend's page-where they then tagged him. Is he stupid for not locking down his page so as to limit the people who could view him? Absolutely. Does that stupidity warrant him losing his job? It shouldn't. The superintendent would be doing a greater disservice to the district by letting go of a good administrator.

Moral of the story...everyone should know by now that anything...and I mean ANYTHING that is posted on the Internet is fair game. Networking sites give you the opportunity to keep your privacy, but you have to do the work to change the settings! They aren't going to do it for you!

You have to be proactive in protecting your own privacy. You wouldn't walk around your house naked with all curtains and blinds open and expect that no one would see you, would you? Unless you WANT people to see you walking around naked, or you want everyone and their brother to be able to access the information that you post on the Internet, YOU have to be your own advocate. You have to protect yourself, because no one is going to do it for you.