Educator sues teens over page on MySpace

San Antonio Express-News ^ | 09/21/2006 | Jenny LaCoste-Caputo

[muawiyah]

I can always republish it for you ~ hey, I got blamed for that darned thing ~ they thought I was the only student smart enough to both type and spell!

[wintertime]

The lawsuit also maintains that both boys have had discipline problems at the school and that Draker has had to discipline Ryan Todd numerous times.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Hm?......These boys have been disciplined many times? So...Would you want your child sitting next to either of these two? Is this the wonderful "socialization" that homeschoolers are missing?

I have a constitutional issue, and our First Amendment right to free association.

There are likely many students in that school who are there because if they didn't show up, either they or their parents would face police, court, and foster care action. Would any rational parent want their children to be associating with these two delinquents? The government, though, will force association with these two mini-thugs and trash the First Amendment in the process. Remember. These two boys **do** sit next to other people's children. I suppose liberals would call this diversity.

[battlegearboat]

No.

As I said, I typed it on an Underwood typewriter with carbon paper copies.

Are you old enough to know what carbon paper is? I guess I should insert a smiley face icon to show that I'm not being snotty :o)

Oops, still smacks of snottiness...

[libstripper]

Besides lewd language, the site also falsely identified Draker as a lesbian.

Ouch!! If she's not a lesbian, that's a libel and she has a very good cause of action. Those kids and their parents are going to pay big time.

[libstripper]

That's the kind of thing you could get away with legally because it all appears to be truthful. The kids in this case, according to the article, made two HUGE legal mistakes: they structured the web page to look like the assistant principal herself posted it and they included a directly false allegation that she was a lesbian. If high school kids are going to post derogatory material about their teachers and school administrators without running afoul of the law, they have to keep it to provable facts and opinions.

[libstripper]

Oh, how I (age 63 1/2) remember the bad old days of multiple carbon packs and how one typo would force a typist to spend five minutes correcting the error. Suffering that kind of penalty for a single error caused many secretaries in the bad old days to become very good typists. Computers make things so easy.

[libstripper]

Not understanding 1970s and earlier technology was the thing that destroyed the CBS/DemonRat attempt to fake the Bush ANG memos. Whoever physically produced the actual fakes was probably fairly young, under a lot of time pressure to create them, and didn't even know the tremendous technological changes that have occurred in document creation in the last 20 years, and, hence, produced laughable fakes.

[battlegearboat]

Oh yeah.

I was a yeoman in the Navy. They locked us in a classroom in San Diego "A" School where we typed on typewriters with unlabeled keys...eight hours a day until we could type 50 WPM with no errors.

Fast forward to several years later when I was the Admiral's Yeoman at Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico. The Navy had sent down some brass from Washington with a big parchment treaty (A beautiful document from The Government Printing Office) that was to be signed by the Navy and the Puerto Rican government officials.

The PR's objected to some part of the agreement and demanded that a certain paragraph be inserted before they would sign it.

The night before, I got pretty well lubed up at the EM Club and was in no condition to do any delicate typing that this required. The Admiral's office had the only typewriter on the base with a carriage big enough to handle the oversized document, so they sent for me at 0500 hrs. to amend the document.

Well a mistake or two was made and parchment doesn't handle erasures well. The next day, The San Juan Star led off their story about the treaty with this opening phrase: "In a poorly typed document, the Navy and ...blah blah blah".

The new CO, Admiral Ronald J. Hayes, a Rear Admiral at that time (later became CINCPAC), had me transferred the next day to the Communications Department.

It was a blessing in disguise, as life became more easy for me there.

[bert]

Occupational hazard.

[redheadtoo]

Suffering that kind of penalty for a single error caused many secretaries in the bad old days to become very good typists. Computers make things so easy

I took my first typing class in junior high school. I later took typing classes in high school and in an adult education center. I know touch typing but my total lack of manual coordination prevented me from ever becoming good at it. I now accept the fact that 30 words a minute is going to remain my top speed.

Computers and word processing programs have been my salvation. Thanks to technology I am now a published writer. Something I could never have achieved if I had to rely on my marginal typing skills and an typewriter.

[Jimnorwellwarren]

Ok, since you seem knowledgeable about this. What's to prevent them from doing all this anonymously? If they can keep their mouth shut and do all there enterring through a library computer or some other more or less public terminal...would it ever have been traced back to them?

[osideplanner]

I am old enough to know what a memeograph machine is. Can you figure the rest out for yourself? NOTE: no smiley face.

[battlegearboat]

Copy that, Grumpy.

[dennisw]

I know it's wrong but the way they messed with Ms "Assistant Principal's" fragile psyche is hilarious. My bet is she's a jackass.

[dennisw]

good story

[suijuris]

the site also falsely identified Draker as a lesbian

If being gay is so totally normal and acceptable, then whats the harm in being falesly identified as one.

[osideplanner]

Best wishes! Dopey!

[Sloth]

"It's a new era for us dealing with outside Internet activity by kids," Gonzalez said. "There is no school policy that governs it."

And there shouldn't be. What students do outside the school is none of its business.

[battlegearboat]

You got mail.

You got my attention.

Piss up a rope.

[battlegearboat]

Hey Newbie troll, take a hike.