Yet Another Example of Forcing School Into Where It Doesn't Belong

Don't we have enough issues to deal with at school, without having to deal with teenage sexting as well?  If it's happening at school, that's one thing, but if it's happening outside of school, why should the school be involved at all?

Concerned by a practice he’s said is becoming more prevalent in schools, a state lawmaker is carrying a bill that would let schools suspend or expel kids for so-called sexting – sharing explicit pictures and recordings via electronic message. Assembly Bill 2536 would also require that health classes include information on the perils of sharing scandalous content.

The bill specifically deals with images or video – lascivious language isn’t enough – and focuses on cases where the communication has “the effect of humiliating or harassing a pupil.” It exempts images that have “serious literary, artistic, educational, political, or scientific value.”

“Over the last few years we have heard many stories about the impacts of sexting. Sexting has real consequences,” the bill’s author, Assemblyman Ed Chau, D-Arcadia, said in an interview. “You basically have a sexting issue and then that issue is exacerbated by the proliferation of these smartphones,” which Chau said is fueling more cyberbullying.

The "effect on a pupil" argument is so slippery.  Just about everything has an effect on kids ("pupils"), are we going to give schools the authority to, for example, suspend kids for not inviting someone to their party (it "hurt their feelings")?  Are we going to give schools the authority to, for example, suspend students who have sex?  Are we going to give schools the authority to, for example, suspend kids who attend the "wrong" meetings outside of school, (again, "hurting the feelings" of others)?

If I've said it once, I've said it 8 zillion times--schools need to worry about what goes on during school.  Anything else is the responsibility of the parents or the police.