Friday is the deadline for students at St. Hugo of the Hills Catholic School to follow orders or risk suspension. School Principal Sister Margaret Van Velzen sent letters home to parents this week saying, in part, that if families allow children to continue their MySpace.com sites, they will not be allowed to return to school. The school plans to use its computer-savvy staff members to monitor the site for student activity.The principal declined comment, but St. Hugo office manager Judy Martinek said the principal just wants to keep the students safe.
“We’ve stated our position and we hope all students are in the process of taking down their sites by tomorrow,” said Martinek.
Jerry Herron, Wayne State University professor of American Studies, thinks keeping kids off the site may just offer a false sense of security.
“They may heave a sigh of relief and think maybe this problem will be solved, but a predator who wants to violate children will find a way, electronically or otherwise, sadly,” he said.
Of course, parents should establish access systems for their kids – and explain why to the kids. Turning the responsibility over to the thought police is a bit different.
Catholic Church thinking:
Myspace, bad
Pedophile Priests, good
The Catholic church is so fucked up, I’m surprised anybody stills belongs to it.
#1. They have done such a good job of brain washing over the past 2000 years that people don’t know any better. That is why.
Sounds like a good time to start creating as many fake myspace pages for real students at that school as you can find and watch the legal battle ensue!
#1, agreed. They would do better to ban the kids from church.
#3, start one for the Pope.
I don’t see how, legally schools can regulate kids activity outside of school. At least in the US. If a school decides to ban MySpace from their network, that’s fine…it’s their network, and their computers. They don’t own the internet, nor do they own the computers the kids use at home.
If the parents agree that their kids shouldn’t be on MySpace (actually my step-daughter is grounded from MySpace, but that’s another story), then the parents should step up and do what they think is right.
I guess this is just another case where lazy parents think that schools should parent the kids instead of them, and a school that agrees with that. Case in point: The parent that agreed with this drek at the end of the article.
The internet reflects the people involved with it. So yeah, there’s predators out there. But it’s not like 90% of internet users are child predators either. And not like that’s exclusive to MySpace. Short-sighted, ignorant, and arrogant thinking.
5 – Technically they can’t make the students remove their myspace pages.. but what they CAN do is say “we;; then we’re going ot boot you out”. Catholic Schools are private institutions so they can boot people out for almost any reason – public schools can’t.
In other words they fall back on that old catholic traditional tool – fear.
The thought that a school would restract access to a variety of websites by the institution they are learning from seems a pointless motion. If you’re worrried about safety then sensabilisation is more important than restriction.
You don’t keep someone safe by telling them they will not be allowed to cross the road. You keep them safe by teaching them how to remain safe when in the process of crossing that road. It’s from experience that things are made safer.
So, where does their intrusion stop? Will the school someday bar their kids from watching certain television programming at home and threaten their expulsion if they find out that a child watched the program? What about game playing? Will kids be barred from playing cops-n-robbers like we did when we were young? After all, it’s a “violent” game and someone has to play the role of a “robber” – and stealing is wrong?
And….what if a child or his family have a web page to share stories and pictures with family and friends. Internet predators might see that too. Perhaps the school should ban the child from internet use and access from home since it cannot be supervised by them. Good grief. Does no one give parents any credit anymore? Schools are not substitutes for good parenting and good parent involvement. How they can fairly dictate this MySpace policy is beyond me. They should focus their efforts on teaching instead of all of this extraneous nonsense.
So if I hate some kid in my class I can just make a my space site for him and they’ll kick him out of school?
Time to start making some faculty sites as well.
I already have a MySpace, so no making fake ones for me! :p
Wait…I can’t see to find a MySpace for Dvorak! You guys better get crackin’ and make one for him, so he can get kicked outta Catholic School!
[/sarcasm]
#6,
Catholic Schools are private institutions so they can boot people out for almost any reason – public schools can’t.
Very good point and the only one that counts.
As for the school principal, ignorance is bliss when you’re an effen virgin that has no clue what life is like outside the monastery. As said above, the “church” did a superb job of enlightening people for 2000 years.
4, start one for the Pope. Now that’s darned funny !! I’d love to see it now.
🙂
#2) +1, although the same can be said of just about all the religions of the world, or at least the organized ones…
how retarded could this nun bitch be. I went to catholic school and the nuns there only had a concern about teaching the bible.
also,
Myspace is already dying out. I’m pretty sure this will effect a few students and all they are going to do is move over to the next big thing
i.e. facebook or whatever is big with the teen crowd right now
Only nerds and losers still use myspace! Facebook is where its at!
Regarding schools abilities to dictate student behavior, The legal foundation of it is in loco parentis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_loco_parentis
A few years ago I did a little bit of research on this regarding colleges and things have changed a lot in the last century or so. I ran across a case from the early 1900s in which a court ruled in favor of a college that had a rule which made it illegal for its students (who were 18+) to eat at any off-campus restaurant. So for a private school to ban the use of a website is not that big of a deal in comparison.
However, as my initial statement about no one using myspace any more tries to point out, banning a specific website is misguided at best and stupid at worst. If this school had such tech savvy people working there they would realize that if you ban one site, you can just go to another one.
I say good.
getting thrown out of Catholic school could be the best thing that ever happens to them.
hmmm.. what happens when someone makes a page of someone else? Myspace doesn’t really require you to prove that you are who you say you are, could a student make a page of someone else that they want expelled? how do they PROVE that the page is the person in question espically if it’s private? Are they going to hire cops?
Thanks for all the misinformed and ignorant responses from all those non-Catholics who also never attended a parochial school, which is harmless – you wear uniforms and have 1 religious class instead of study hall but the rest of the schedule is normal just without all the violence, drugs and early teen pregnancy you find in public schools. Oh yeah and they teach morals like don’t bash other people’s religion and how to do research before criticizing something. Things you guys don’t do. BTW it wasn’t pedophile priests but predatory homosexual men (all men on boys). The funny part is you all work and live near Catholics but have no idea because they don’t preach to you and simply go about their lives. Keep up the ignorant bashing.
Have any of you actually done any real research with what kids do on Myspace? Some of the music is the most violent hate related music, impressionable kids find “friends” who they would never otherwise meet who can lead them to start using drugs, contemplating suicide or thinking about becoming sexually active before they are mature enough. The more depressed the kid is the more dangerous places like Myspace can be because they simply find other depressed kids to identify with which amplifies personal harmful behavior. It is not all about child predators, parents would be best to install logging software as well as parental control software to see what their kids are really doing and guess what it is NOT what you think. I set up alot of stuff for parents and they are absolutely shocked at what they find = Kids trying to get high using cough medicine, pot, cocaine, drinking alcohol, having sex ect… when they all thought their kids were at a friends house or at the park. And these are kids under 15. They met these new “friends” on places like MySpace. Not to mention if your kid is using a site as badly designed and absolutely intellectually useless as MySpace you would be best to get them an IQ test ASAP.
Oh BTW John I agree that the parenting should be done by the parents. I will remember your comments about the “thought police” when the Democrats try to RAM another tax or regulation down my throats telling me how I should live. I mean we already have Al Gore telling us that he wants to tax breathing for our “own good” or the Demoncats telling restaurant and bar owners in NJ and NY that they are not allowed to have a smoking section even though smoking is legal? How about seat belt laws and bike helmet laws? It is my body right? Or does that only work for women?
I can just imagine a priest checking Myspace with one hand on the mouse and the other lubed hand on his d**k.
I bet you can #20…. I bet you can
19 – How many throats do you have? Just curious. I’m sure you’re right and banning mySpace will solve the problem and keep your throats safe from tax increases. Makes perfect sense.
#18,
BTW it wasn’t pedophile priests but predatory homosexual men (all men on boys).
Uuhh, a pedophile is one who sexually preys on children. A twelve yr old alter boy generally qualifies as a child. I’m certain that if given the opportunity, the priests would have also preyed on altergirls, if the Catholic church wasn’t so oppressed against women. Secondly, they were priests then and some are even bishops now.
Some of the music is the most violent hate related music,
Would it be anything like the Catholic Church advocating enslaving women? Or keeping people poor and overburdened with too many mouths to feed? Or suggesting that there is no room for dialog from laypeople? Or insisting that only certain men, chosen from among themselves, are capable of leading the church? Or that if I don’t “confess” my sins to another man behind some screen I am going to HELL? Or that I must partake in a ritual cannibalistic ceremony to demonstrate my love for some guy who father killed him? Or that saying “Hail Mary, full of grace, …” so many times makes your screw-ups become OK now?
FYI, I grew up with Catholics. In fact, they were the majority in our neighborhood. They had a lot more teen pregnancies then did the secular school kids. And that is even after the Catholics expelled the bad apples.
No, Catholics are not the worst people or even religion in the world. It is, however, all the stupid interpretations they put on everything that make them, as a group, so evil.
#23. “No, Catholics are not the worst people or even religion in the world. It is, however, all the stupid interpretations they put on everything that make them, as a group, so evil.”
Wow, Mr. Fusion, if you substituted ‘Muslims’ or ‘Jews’ for ‘Catholics’ in that sentence, many people might think it was a rather bigoted statement.
For the record:
Church Hierarchy /= All Catholics
The Catholic laity, particularly in the United States, routinely ignores those portions of official doctrine (as promulgated by a cadre of out of touch, largely socially-retarded, supposedly-celibate men in clerical collars) that they disagree with. That goes for the bans on birth control, the opposition to capital punishment, remarriage after divorce, and the rest.
Uuhh, a pedophile is one who sexually preys on children. A twelve yr old alter boy generally qualifies as a child. I’m certain that if given the opportunity, the priests would have also preyed on altergirls, if the Catholic church wasn’t so oppressed against women. Secondly, they were priests then and some are even bishops now.
Yep nice excuse but it doesn’t change the facts. These predators had full access to girls but choose boys for a reason AKA they were predatory homosexuals. I know the truth is sometimes hard to swallow. I agree Homosexuals should not have access to young boys and I would sentences each one who committed these crimes to death as would most Catholics.
Would it be anything like the Catholic Church advocating enslaving women?
Really? Interesting since women are of a huge importance in the Catholic church since it is one of the few Christian religions which places such a high importance on Jesus’s mother Mary. Another reason you find such a large number of Catholic women. Please find me a Catholic woman who advocates being enslaved. You are just laughable. Ignorant people like you are why so many are bigoted towards Catholics you don’t even know anything about them.
Or keeping people poor and overburdened with too many mouths to feed?
Do you even know any Catholics? Or this just one of your typical bigoted rants.
Or suggesting that there is no room for dialog from laypeople?
Really? Have you ever heard opinions from the Irish and Italians? I would say they get their dialogs in.
Or insisting that only certain men, chosen from among themselves, are capable of leading the church?
Really? Then how do they get new priests and cardinals? This is like criticizing the democratic party for electing it’s chairmen.
Or that if I don’t “confess” my sins to another man behind some screen I am going to HELL?
Did you hear this were you got your other bullshit ideas? Confession is voluntary and no threats are made about going to hell if you don’t. That is just laughable.
Or that I must partake in a ritual cannibalistic ceremony to demonstrate my love for some guy who father killed him?
HAHAHAHA! Typical ignorance. Look I am not even religious but at least I don’t make shit up:
“catholics believe they eat the entire Body, Blood, Soul, Divinity and Person of Jesus Christ, spiritually”
Or that saying “Hail Mary, full of grace, …” so many times makes your screw-ups become OK now?
Repeating prayers is a form of meditation but you probably wouldn’t call Ghandi a screw-up.
FYI, I grew up with Catholics. In fact, they were the majority in our neighborhood. They had a lot more teen pregnancies then did the secular school kids. And that is even after the Catholics expelled the bad apples.
Please I attended both schools and teen pregnancy, drug use ect… were astronomical in public schools and non-existent in Catholic schools. Don’t get me wrong it happened just not like bigots like you tried to make it out to be. So please don’t make any more shit up and stop spreading you lies.
No, Catholics are not the worst people or even religion in the world. It is, however, all the stupid interpretations they put on everything that make them, as a group, so evil.
Well since you don’t even know what their interpretations are let alone have a clue about them I suggest you go talk to some. Actually you have, you just don’t know it because they don’t preach to you or profess they are Catholic. You are the worst bigot I have ever met and the most ignorant.
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