Facebook Incident Spurs High School To Form Committee

Saturday, Mar 28, 2009 1:09pm  |  COMMENTS (8)

Remember in Glen Ridge, when postings on My Space had school officials concerned about alcohol use and other risk taking behaviors? This year, Montclair High School has experienced a Facebook problem. A recent incident on Facebook involving high school students engaging in racist comments online, disclosed to parents via an email blast, has resulted in a committee address growing racial concerns.
Plans detailed by the committee in another email blast will include asking volunteer student leaders to attend a full day workshop at the Unitarian-Universalist Congregation with a goal of having this group turnkey the program at MHS and get participation by soliciting school club advisors and reaching out to the Undoing Racism Committee. Student groups will also be set up by a school counselor and social worker using the “Victory Over Violence” model. The committee also hopes to involve the Cartooning Club in displaying artwork “touting our message about Respect and Civility.”

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8 Comments

  1. POSTED BY profwilliams  |  March 28, 2009 @ 2:39 pm

    One thing history has shown us: nothing stops teenagers from writing/posting offensive and sometimes racist writings like involvement of the Cartooning Club.
    Remember the old days, when kids would write dumb things and a school official might, you know, talk to the kid. And that was that?
    Here now, writing something on Facebook– outside of school– is now grounds for the school to be involved.
    God save us from the schools and their “counselors and social workers”.

  2. POSTED BY Mrs. Martta  |  March 28, 2009 @ 4:35 pm

    I’m with Prof on this one. What do these committees hope to achieve? Unfortunately, there will always be racist people and because we have free speech in this country, they have the right to free express, however replusive we find their ideas.
    There is a bit of karmic justice, though. When those racist kids go to apply for a job one day and their potential employers do an Internet search on them, uh-oh.

  3. POSTED BY Jim  |  March 28, 2009 @ 5:22 pm

    Even with MADD’s Don’t Drink and Drive, and Just Say No (to Drugs) campaigns, there will always be the group of kids that align themselves with doing the “right thing”, and those that choose to rebel. It all comes back to the home: parents need to devote more attention and management of their kids if they demonstrate poor judgment. They are, after all, children, and they need to be taught skills to carry them into adulthood. Schools are not substitute parents.

  4. POSTED BY walleroo  |  March 28, 2009 @ 5:36 pm

    There will always be racism. White people will always hate black people, and black people will always hate white people. Your Chinese will hate your Native American, your African will hate your Indian, your Eskimo will hate your Caucasian, and so on and so forth. It’s the rhythm of life, the natural order of things, a fundamental fact of human nature. Why resist it? What possible point is there in even talking about it? Relax, everybody. Chill. Be human. Echo homo!

  5. POSTED BY propaghandi  |  March 28, 2009 @ 10:04 pm

    All anyone needs to know about Montclair can be read here.

  6. POSTED BY PAZ  |  March 29, 2009 @ 12:14 pm

    Walleroo…I like that variation of Ecce Homo.Behold the man!….Again and again and again..

  7. POSTED BY cathar  |  March 30, 2009 @ 10:03 am

    A “full-day workshop at the Unitarian-Universalist congregation” sounds like an awfully harsh punishment for most anything.
    And letting said congregation “turnkey” a program for MHS even sounds a bit discriminatory. No other denomination is sufficiently vigilant against racist remarks? Couldn’t there even be a more syncretic, ecumenical approach to this issue?

  8. POSTED BY Git2itGal  |  March 30, 2009 @ 1:20 pm

    Love that Urban Dictionary, but notice how MKA is described as being in Upper Montclair. Not.
    Having done some research into this in the past, I’d guess the Unitarian Church was invited to help out (possibly at no or low cost) because it has a longstanding program in place, while most local religious institutions’ “social action committee” agendas focus on more parochial things.
    If these kids get to experience the real Undoing Racism program from the People’s Institute they will be fortunate indeed. If they get a UU version of it, well…

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