Michael Guinn scales the media mountain...

...and makes it to the cover of USAToday.

Michael Guinn is the gay student dismissed from John Brown University in January for failing to adhere to the school's lifestyle agreement. Back in February I posted a massive round-up (with commentary) of what the blogosphere had to say about the Guinn controversey.

The broader theme of the USAToday cover story is students and online privacy. It reports on the growing trend of students across the country getting into trouble based on what they post on various personal sites, from MySpace to Xanga to Facebook.

In the past few months, college, high school and even middle school students across the USA have been suspended or expelled, thrown off athletic teams, passed over for jobs and even arrested based on their online postings.

For example, the story reports that an employer at Vermont Technical College changed his mind about hiring a student after seeing his Facebook profile. A prospective student at Reed College in Portland, OR, was refused admission after the dean found defamatory comments about the school on the student's LiveJournal blog.

The story affirms that private institutions are well-within their rights to make their own rules and to punish, dismiss or refuse admission to students who don't follow them.

In general, students at private schools or universities are bound by the rules of their institution and not protected by the First Amendment right of free speech. Students enrolled at public universities have more latitude to express themselves.

Another, related debate current raging is whether public high schools and middle schools have disciplinary authority over their students' activities when they occur off-campus and during non-school hours. One (male) middle school student in California started a social group on MySpace which directed profane and violent language towards another (female) student. The school suspended the student who posted the group, but also suspended 20 other students simply because they viewed the website.

[District assistant superintendent Bob] 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.

Michael Guinn claims his situation is different because he was dismissed for reasons other than civility or safety: namely, that he had incompatible theological differences with the school that weren't dangerous, and that he failed to adhere to the lifestyle agreement he signed.

I would understand if a student was saying, "I want to rob this gas station," but when they're not breaking laws or hurting themselves or someone else, I don't (think) colleges should use the Internet against their students.

For now, however, schools' use of internet journals to keep track of student behavior is here to stay. The safest bet for students is to realize that blogs and other online journals are in the public domain, and post (or refrain from posting) accordingly.

UPDATE: Keep track of the USAToday's online poll about this issue.

Related posts:
Michael Guinn: A massive round-up
My comment on the USAToday site

Tags: Michael Guinn, blogs, blogging, school discipline, first ammendment, civil rights, gay students, homosexuality, John Brown University, JBU, MySpace, Xanga, Facebook, LiveJournal