According to Yahoo News, high school students attending schools in District 128 Libertyville, IL are going to be held accountable for what they post on blogs and on social-networking Web sites such as MySpace.com.
The board of Community High School District 128 voted unanimously on Monday to require that all students participating in extracurricular activities sign a pledge agreeing that evidence of “illegal or inappropriate” behavior posted on the Internet could be grounds for disciplinary action.
This action appears consistent with rumors that some (I wonder how many) admissions officers in colleges and universities also check blog and other online postings of student applicants. They look for how consistent the applicant’s public postings appear to the type of students most likely to benefit from the institution’s style of education. In other words, they use blogs and other postings as though the applicant has submitted them as essays of evidence of qualification for matriculation.
In both cases, students should already know that their behavior online is a proxy for talking in school hallways and public street corners. Online behavior is a proxy for traditional publication of an autobiography. When they publish, readers make judgments about the writer as well as about the content of the writing.
Please make sure your children and students know that whatever they say online from school or elsewhere may have academic consequences for them at some unknown time in the future.