Your Ethics Alarms Ethics Quiz of the Day is…
Should the student be punished?
I am not at all certain that punishment is not justified. In Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L. (2021), the Supreme Court held that student speech outside of school on social media could be legally punished if, though the principles articulated in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District and Bethel School District v. Fraser, the posts risked seriously disrupting education at a school.
Holding fellow students up to public ridicule, which the videos do, could be fairly regarded as disruptive. However, the videos also qualify as a public service, and even, arguably, a potential benefit to the students at the school and the school itself, if they prompt needed reform.
It doesn’t help that the students shown in the video are all “of color.” Does that mean that the student behind the camera was selectively targeting minorities? Does it mean that the white students he filmed could read? The host in the video above makes a valid point about flawed methodology: the sentences were written in script, which schools no longer teach.
I am also open to the argument that both might be true: the student should be punished, but what he found is also valuable information that requires a serious and effective response. This would make it similar to an unethically recorded conversation that reveals a planned crime and aids in its prevention. In this, the issue is a classic absolutism vs. utilitarianism clash. Kant says a human being must never be used as a means to an end. But surely—no?—the exposure of this problem is worth the momentary discomfort of the students whose ignorance has been exposed along with the failure of the school. The students are the real victims.
Ethics Alarms 
I have a couple of questions:
1. Isn’t what this student did investigative journalism followed by intentionally publishing the findings for public consumption thus giving the student all the protections granted to the news media under the first amendment?
2. Could laws protecting whistleblowers be used to protect this individual?
3. Wouldn’t the student have a first amendment case against the school and the school board if the student is punished in any way by the school?
My Opinion
I think the school district should deal with this in the exact same manner as they would if it was published by a professional journalist in the local newspaper or on the local news. As for using the possibility of school disruption to punish a student when that school disruption has not actually taken place, which would be similar to the plot of the movie “Minority Report” and would be treading on very thin morality and legal ice. Schools have to deal with behavioral disruptions from individuals regularly, and this is likely the only kind of “disruption” that I can foresee other than the public knowing how bad the schools are.
“…risked seriously disrupting education at a school.” You can’t disrupt something that isn’t happening.
That’s a really interesting way of putting it!!
Nice argument.
But “education happening” these days means the students show up in attendance. Similarly, showing up at work means they are working and should be paid for being present. It all seems related. Can’t define education, work or what a woman is.
One of my state’s gubernatorial candidates is running ads stating that the state’s public schools have an 80% failure rate in teaching kids to read. His solution is to send them to get more training from the people who trained them on how to not teach kids to read in the first place.
For every student the public schools in this country lose, they add an additional employee (900,000 fewer students in the last few years, 700,000 new employees).
Nothing will change until the public stops treating public school employees as if they are good people.
“the posts risked seriously disrupting education at a school.”
You can’t disrupt something if it is not taking place in the first place.
That being said, exposing one’s peers to ridicule is, as they say, a “dick move.” While I do not think the school should punish him for exposing the school’s failure to achieve its goals, the students in the video would have a legitimate (and possibly legal) beef with him.
-Jut
JutGory wrote, “the students in the video would have a legitimate (and possibly legal) beef with him.”
As for the legal part; only if it falls within defamation laws, as in, was it publishing something that he knew was a false aka a lie.
You can’t disrupt something if it is not taking place in the first place.
I almost included that line in the post, but was confident someone would use it.
Furthermore…
Jack wrote, “In Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L. (2021), the Supreme Court held that student speech outside of school on social media could be legally punished if, though the principles articulated in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District and Bethel School District v. Fraser, the posts risked seriously disrupting education at a school.”
The Supreme Court might want to review the based on the lack of “imminent lawless action” discussed in Brandenburg v. Ohio.
When did school systems get the ultimate authority to ignore and override a students individual 1st Amendment rights of and punish them for the possibility of disrupting education, literally a disruption that hasn’t yet taken place.
This is absurd.
No I don’t think he should be punished for exactly the reasons Steve laid out. What we should be doing is in this upcoming election season when every politician has education in their platform we should ask what the hell are we getting for our money.