Students suspended at Century Middle School in Lakeville for sharing inappropriate photo
An undisclosed number of students were suspended from Century Middle School in Lakeville earlier this week for sharing an inappropriate photo of a student, the district confirms.
Officials at the Lakeville school district have not said how the photo was spread, but when they heard of the incident officials at CMS acted promptly, according to reports.
Linda Swanson, the district’s communications coordinator, issued the following statement:
“On Monday, May 22, the Century Middle School administration became aware of a possible student violation of another student’s privacy using electronic means. Working with the District Office and local law enforcement, building administrators took immediate action to investigate the matter.
Appropriate actions were then taken to address this situation. The Lakeville Area Public Schools will continue to maintain a safe and respectful learning environment for all students.
Please understand that we are very limited in what we can communicate as a result of legal requirements and concern for the adolescent students involved.”
Sun Thisweek will have more on this as it develops.
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The journey from childhood to adulthood for all children is wrought with mistakes. Granted some children make bigger and more serious mistakes then others but it is a treacherous journey for our children who face stressors, temptations and challenges that fortunately did not exist decades ago. With the technology and social media available to our children today making serious errors in judgement can spread like wildfire and cause serious harm with just the touch of a button and although we may educate our children on what is right and wrong, we need to remember they are children whose abilities to reason and exercise good judgement are still developing well into their twenties. This isn’t to say that our children don’t know right from wrong but when faced with challenges, pressure and stressors they are more likely to respond impulsively rather than analyzing the consequences of their actions. Couple that with the ease with which technology and social media transmits those errors in judgement, we as parents are putting a loaded gun in our children’s hands by handing them a phone and by allowing them to have email, Facebook and Twitter accounts. We have taught them at home and in the schools what is and is not appropriate use of technology but what safeguards have we put in place to protect our children from their own impulsive nature? Before we judge and turn our backs on the children of our community who caused the harm, I would ask that all parents first ask themselves if they know without a shadow of a doubt that their own child is immune to mistakes and errors in judgement. How many of you panicked when you heard the news because you wondered if maybe your own child was involved in some way, shape or form? I know I did and I have educated my children and taught them right from wrong. I would then ask that all the children of our community ask themselves if they think they are immune to mistakes and if they know without a shadow of a doubt that they won’t exercise poor judegement in the future that may cause serious harm to others? No adult or child is immune to making mistakes and exercising poor judgement.
Not to minimize in any way the harm that was done, I am a parent and feel a deep sadness for all involved and without question there needs to be accountability and consequences but as parents, educators, students and a community let us focus not on pointing fingers at yesterday but focus on tomorrow and on what we all can do to make sure that history doesn’t become the future for any other child in our community.
Hopefully this will be a wake up call to parents and administrators that there is no reason cell phones should be at school. Not one valid reason. Back in the “olden days” if you needed to reach your student you called the office. Maybe we should all take a step back from allowing these kids all this freedoom, and remember that they are children, and need our guidance now more than ever.
I believe there is already policy on the use of cell phones in schools. Teachers have enough on their plate and don’t need another hat to wear while teaching, parents need to step up and take full responsibility for their Childs actions and be diligent as to what is brought to school and what occurs when they are not in school.
Agree, the schools can only do so much. We as parents need to put measures in place to protect our children from the dangers of the misuse technology and social media. We can put limits on the days and hours our children can text and receive phone calls, we can block video and picture messaging, we can receive email notifications of any facebook updates, there’s alot we can do to protect our children from themselves and others. I don’t know if it’s a lack of awareness of the measures a parent can take to protect our children or fear of social isolation by putting measures in place or maybe we are putting too much faith in our kids that they will do the right thing because we have educated them. I look at it this way, we put our kids in driver’s ed, we take them out on the road to practice and when they get their license we hand them over the keys to the car but we know they are still at risk of danger because they are young and impulsive and their ability to reason and exercise good judgement is still developing well into their early 20′s, so we put measures in place by means of graduated licensing to limit, as much as possible, the inherent risks that children are more susceptible to. Knowing the inherent risks that children are more susceptible to, why then don’t we do this with technology and social media? We know our kids are going to make bad decisions sometimes despite what we have taught them and despite the fact that they know right from wrong because they are just that, kids. By not putting appropriate measures in place to minimize the inherent risks, it’s just a matter of time before our kids crash the car so to speak and hurt themselves and others. Our children may hate us for putting limitations on what they are and are not able to do but our primary role as parents is to protect our children. I think it’s time for us as parents to take back the car keys, hop in the driver’s seat and steer the car in the right direction.