Amaranta Hernandez

Mr. Ledesma

CIT

11 July 2016

Article Summary

In this article Mean Kids, Online, a writer for the Los Angeles Times briefly

discusses the jurisdiction over disciplination of cyberbullying. She informs us that

students who are engaging in bullying activities online may only be frowned upon, as

the authority of school officials is marginalized. For example, there was a student in

Beverly Hills who reached out to her school officials for help regarding a video that had

been posted online about her. However, it came to be that the suspension of the

accused girl had been illegal because her video had been produced off of school

grounds. In addition, there was a case in Pennsylvania that had to do with a student

who posted a parody account of his principal on MySpace. He got off the hook because

it was not a school-related activity. This reveals that school officials have limited power

even when it comes to offensive statements regarding their own administration. Lastly,

the author argues that while it may seem unjust, the line of distinction is blurred when it

comes to online speech. This comes to show that we should respect technology and the

people who use it. In retrospect, this article discusses several issues regarding

jurisdiction of cyberbullying violations, and makes the point that not everything is in our

reach--serving as a further reason to take action when we see misdeeds occurring in

our own personal lives.