Facebook: Trust and Consequences

Last week, it was reported that administrators at Eden Prairie High School in Minnesota got wind of pictures of students allegedly drinking at parties that turned up on Facebook, which is one of those social networking sites you've probably heard about. They pulled 42 students out of class for interviews, then disciplined 13 of them.

Believing that their privacy and civil rights had been violated, approximately 15 students dared to walk out of the school in protest. Some parents are threatening to take legal action because the suspensions might do irreparable harm to their kids' chances of getting scholarships, not to mention the parents' reputations.

Before we go too much further, a disclaimer: I am a graduate of Eden Prairie High School, which in my case was located in the current middle school, and not the educational fortress that rises above Valley View Road today. (President George W. Bush spoke there a few months after the 9/11 attacks, which explains volumes) I do not have kids who are past or current students of EPHS.

Was the administration, who had claimed that they don't go snooping around Facebook or My Space the way the tabloids stalk Britney Spears looking for dirt, right in disciplining the students? There is a trust factor involved here, and the administrators stepped over the line. Also, they might have gotten their information from kids who wanted to get back at a classmate or two for some slight.

The front page headline in the 1/17/08 edition of the Eden Prairie News asked the question:
"Has Facebook exposed culture of drinking?" The short answer is yes. There has always been a culture of drinking and substance abuse, whether it's at EPHS or anywhere else. The same parents who tell their kids to stay away from drugs and alcohol are hypocrites because they probably did it themselves once upon a time. That's part of the reason why we have an addiction problem in this country, and you don't need Facebook to tell you that.

We're not condoning underage drinking, which has gotten a lot of attention around here lately with the deaths of local college students who imbibed way too much. But if you're going to engage in reckless behavior, at least have the sense not to brag about it or publish pictures of yourself and your friends quaffing brewskis on your web site. Because you never know who might be looking in, whether it's your parents, college recruiters, future employers or law-enforcement personnel. (Actually, that's good advice no matter what your age.)

Too often, people (such as the Star Tribune's schoolmarm columnist Katherine Kersten) underestimate the ability of teenagers and young adults to make the right choices in life, with or without the help of their parents. If we can't trust them, how can they trust us?