Privacy Vs Safety: Where Should Schools Draw The Line?

Social media has become a big part of our everyday life, so to some extent it is understandable if schools decide to keep an eye on what's happening in their staffs or students media platforms. We see a lot of bullying, threats and dangerous posts online today, and we can't deny the fact that these things can sometimes find their way into an academic setting.

But then, I'm not saying that the school should have unlimited access to accounts of their staffs and students, nah. A school is a place of learning, and for that reason it shouldn't become a place of fear or a place where they now feel like they are not safe anymore.

Actually, when I first read through this topic. A movie I'm currently watching came to mind. It's a Korean movie titled, "Teach you a lesson." The whole of the movie centers around schools, staffs, and parents. Even though I'm still watching it, I can tell you that it is a very interesting one. Now, in one of the episodes, a particular student who has thousands of followers online often uses her platform to tell lies on teachers. There's this particular one that happened and she lied that her teacher raped her, meanwhile the teacher only went in to caution and counsel her about how she often victimizes other teachers.

Immediately the teacher left, she ripped off her buttons, opened her media handle and did a video while crying that she has just been harassed by her teacher. And in no time, people online had started tagging the school and threatening the teacher. The news spread fast and no one bothered to find out the truth, that was how this teacher was being trolled online, offline, and at work. That particular movie opened my eyes more to how powerful the media space has become.

Just like the topic treated last week about virality. A single tweet, post, video, or picture either true or false can change how people see a person in the twinkling of an eye. And in such a situation like the movie I cited above, it is very well understandable if such a school or system decides to start step in, investigate and look into their students accounts. Not because they want to start controlling them, but because they can now see how that the actions of just a student can cause such an havoc, what if all of the students now do the same. It won't just affect the teacher in question, it will as well affect the reputation of such school.

We all have our lives outside of the school and learning premises, but that doesn't mean that what we do online shouldn't be guided. We've seen a lot of organizations who turned down applicants due to what they seem them posting on their social media platforms. If we see a teacher or student online siding with bullies, rapists, and the likes, then it's just a matter of time before such a person began to exhibit such things in the school premises.

I'm no saying schools should be given total access,nah, because if that is done then it would definitely look like control, abuse or even invasion of privacy. And even the normal banters and fun we have online will have to stop since everyone would now feel like such a joke can be reported or seen by school authorities.

School should remain what it is, a school. They shouldn't start to spy on everyone, but then while not spying and finding fault with every single thing, they shouldn't ignore certain online behaviors that can be harmful. What I mean is, there should be rules and regulations even for the school too, they should know when to step in to investigate and when they are to stay out.

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Images are AI generated.

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