Sext-DING!

The 'ding' of a phone could end a life, as it did with Hope Witsell and Jesse Logan-- who are both assumed to have committed suicide because of the horrific bullying they experienced after sexting. I have mixed reactions to Hope Witsell's story. My first reaction: Where were the teachers? They must have been aware, or at least suspected, that Hope Witsell was being bullied by her peers. How could they have missed Hope being screamed at-- whore and slut-- by her peers in the hallway? I highly doubt that Hope was strong enough to mask her emotions all day, every day. Did teachers really not notice a change in her behavior, or did they perhaps notice and not think twice or, worse, completely ignore it?

Although some people complain about it, the strongly (sometimes overly) enforced Harassment, Intimidation, and Bullying (HIB) Laws in New Jersey may have prevented the death of Hope because teacher's may have felt obligated to say something if it was their legal responsibility to do so. On the homepage of almost every single New Jersey Public School website, there is a tab that instantly directs users to bullying policies, HIB Law policies, and usually a 'Reporting an Incident' document (or directions on how to report an incident). When I investigated the Beth Shields Middle School webpage, the school Hope was attending when she committed suicide, it took me forever to access the school's bullying policies. Eventually, I searched 'bullying' in the site's webpage and was directed to the appropriate links-- but it took a long time and in most cases there is no time to spend searching for bullying resources on a school's webpage.

Browsing through the Language Arts curriculum of Beth Shields Middle School, I discovered that there were little to no novels or texts that had themes of bullying embedded in them. Although I could not locate a complete book list, I found some novels that are suggested to seventh grade teachers by the school's media center. Many of these suggested novels are dated and lack issues relevant to seventh grade students-- like bullying and suicide.

I understand that students in seventh grade should not be reading novels with themes of suicide, death, and bullying-- but if seventh grade students are bullying other students so badly that one is driven to suicide, it's time to read/talk about it. Novels like The Hunger Games, 13 Reasons Why, and even The Scarlett Letter (they want dated novels, this one's perfect-- and still contains relevant themes that Hope probably could have related to) should be read at the middle school level if students are driving other students to kill themselves. They see much worse on TV and video games, anyway, and reading novels like these provide an outlet to discuss these disturbingly relevant and 'touchy' issues.

One last reaction I had to Hope Witsell's story: Why was she punished by the school? It does not make any sense to me that a young girl who made a "mistake" was suspended, while the students who were intentionally taunting her and circulating her picture were not at all (according to the article) punished. This forces me to question what we, as a society, are against-- a young girl who explores her sexuality in a healthy, non-physical way (after all, we do value abstinence), or a group of people who exploit a young girl's innocence. Gauging by how everything in Hope's story seemed to turn out, it seems that we are supposed to be against the young girl's very natural exploration of sexuality and should, instead, join the ranks to judge and punish her for her "crime."

Schools should be responsible for teaching students how to use technology by the standards that society deem appropriate. After all, students go to school so they can successfully integrate themselves into society. But schools should also be responsible for teaching students how to treat one another with respect-- no matter what the circumstances are. I do not care what she has done, it is completely unacceptable to call a seventh grade girl (or any girl) a slut or whore. The fact Beth Shields Middle School did not punish the students who bullied Hope Witsell, at least it was not mentioned in the article, disturbs me more than one sext. I wholeheartedly believe it is a much larger issue when a school punishes one young girl who sent one sext, and not a group of students who display behavior that is dehumanizing.

"Fair is foul and foul is fair"

Fair use is a legal defense (not a right) founded on the belief that the public is entitled to freely use portions of copyrighted materials for purposes of commentary or criticism. Fair use applies to education because many teachers utilize copyrighted material without legal permission. If caught, school's deny infringement and argue fair use. The line between infringement and fair use, however, is quite ambiguous. The U.S. Copyright Office acknowledges that the "distinction between what is fair use and what is infringement in a particular case will not always be clear or easily defined. There is no specific number of words, lines, or notes that may safely be taken without permission. Acknowledging the source of the copyrighted material does not substitute for obtaining permission." Although there are certain guidelines for fair use-- such as not impeding upon the nature of the work, borrowing only a limited amount of the work, and not changing the value of the work on the marketplace-- there are no specific limitations on the amount of work being borrowed.

The legal implications in the world of copyrighted work is confusing-- especially in regards to education. On the one hand, we have to question whether it is fair for schools to be deprived of material they cannot afford. On the other hand, we have to question whether it is fair for schools who can afford classroom material to be deprived of leniency. In order to please everyone (the people who have copyrighted work and the people who borrow copyrighted work for educational purposes), the rules and regulations are ambiguous and, in a way, paradoxical: "Fair is foul and foul is fair." The guidelines must become more strict or more lenient, favoring one set of people or the other. Regardless, more schools (administration, faculty/staff, and students) should be educated on the subjects of copyright, infringement, and fair use-- as this is the first time I am ever learning about it.