Assignment #8

Free speech off campus must be protected by Frank D. LoMonte

Summary- LoMonte describes the laws that are being made on students to be more aware of what they say on networking sites such as facebook, twitter, ect. He uses multiple examples from past student experiences that help get his point across.For example, he uses the Tatro v. University of Minnesota case. In this case Amanda Tatro had been called to the student-conduct board because of what she had written on facebook. She had written that she had nicknamed someone in the laboratory "Bernie". She also wrote about stabbing someone with a dissecting knife and many believe it was her ex-boyfriend. A classmate of hers read these messages and forwarded them to to the University of Minnesota authorities. A criminal investigation was filed and although Tatro had no intent of hurting anyone, she was charged and disciplined anyway. Although these laws are being made for students who don't know how to carefully post things on facebook or other social networking devices, I think it's freedom of speech. It seems to me from the Tatro case that she had no intent of harming anyone, but just to joke around on facebook. On the other hand, I do understand that students need to realize  that when you post things, they are viewable to many people and someone may take something you said offensively. My personal opinion is that students should be able to make jokes on facebook because its your site and you control what goes on it. At the same time you should be careful about what you say and how you say it.