The World Needs More Ninjas

A principal has told students that they face suspension unless they delete their blogs to “protect them from sexual predators”:

Effective immediately, and over student complaints, the teens were told to dismantle their Myspace.com accounts or similar sites with personal profiles and blogs. Defy the order and face suspension, students were told.

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The primary impetus behind the ban is to protect students, McHugh said. The Web sites, popular forums for students to blog about their lives and feelings about their teachers and schools, are fertile ground for sexual predators to gather information about children, he said.

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While Pope John’s school handbook does not specifically forbid students from creating personal profiles on Web sites, it does prohibit students from posting anything on the Internet pertaining to the school, without the school’s permission.

“It’s an incredible overreaction based on an unproven problem,” Bankston said. “If they’re concerned about safety, they could train students in what they should or shouldn’t put online. Kids shouldn’t be robbed of the primary communication tool of their generation.”

You could probably lock them in a guarded cage 24-7 to protect them from sexual predators also. The ends just doesn’t justify the means.