California
school suspends 20 who saw web site
Associated Press
March 3, 2006
COSTA MESA, Calif. (AP) -- A middle school student faces expulsion for
allegedly posting graphic threats against a classmate on the popular
MySpace.com Web site, and 20 of his classmates were suspended for
viewing the posting, school officials said.
Police are investigating the boy's comments about his classmate at
TeWinkle Middle School as a possible hate crime, and the district is
trying to expel him.
According to three parents of the suspended students, the invitation to
join the boy's MySpace group gave no indication of the alleged threat.
They said the MySpace social group name's was "I hate (girl's name)"
and included an expletive and an anti-Semitic reference.
A later message to group members directed them to a nondescript folder,
which included a posting that allegedly asked: "Who here in the (group
name) wants to take a shotgun and blast her in the head over a thousand
times?"
Because the creator of a posting can change its content at any time,
it's unclear how much the students saw.
"With what the students can get into using the technology we are all
concerned about it," Bob Metz, the district assistant superintendent of
secondary education, said Wednesday.
Metz said the students' suspensions in mid-Febuary were appropriate
because the incident involved student safety. Some parents however
questioned whether the school overstepped its bounds by disciplining
students for actions that occurred on personal computers, at home and
after school hours.