The myth of privacy

Coaches, administration and parents now have a way to identify student’s inappropriate behavior: social networking. The Internet makes things intended to be kept private available to everyone. Thousands of AHS students have provided pictures, videos, and personal information to the world and often don’t know who’s looking. School staff, for example, can legally use information or pictures obtained from social networking sites such as Facebook or Myspace as justifaction for disciplinary action. This brings up moral questions about privacy rights and confidentiality. “They’re just too strict, it seems like they’re just out to find something wrong,” said senior Ashley Swiger. “I don’t think I feel comfortable knowing they [administration] could see things. I have my Facebook set up so I have to approve anyone in order for them to see anything,” said senior Ella Quimby. In addition to administration, sports teams have begun using online networks to monitor students. “These days I’ve found the old methods don’t work,” says head volleyball coach Rick Dunetz. He has student athletes on the varsity team join a group on “Facebook”, as well as add him as a friend to watch their behavior. “The only reason I’m on Facebook is to monitor anything going on within the team internally… I don’t talk about anything that doesn’t have to do with volleyball,” he said. He believes Facebook serves as a, “good monitoring technique. They can send secret messages, but I can still get a general picture for whats going on.” If he believes he is witnessing an issue with his team online, Dunetz then addresses the problem in person. “I don’t want their problems to play out on Facebook, I want them to come to me in person… We are in an age of quick communications and students need to learn how to solve things face to face,” he said. Most of his student athletes do not have any issues with this policy. “Sometimes you’re talking to your friends about something and you have to delete it, but it’s not really weird because then your coach is like your friend,” said sophomore Grace Franjie. Having a responsible adult monitoring online networks prevents students from placing embarrassing and incriminating pictures and information online. “My problem with Facebook is it’s a public forum. Everyone can see it, parents can go on, and look and administration can go on and look,” Dunetz said. With every profile of every student athlete the reputation of the team, the coaching staff and the school itself are on the line. Preventing disruptions and disconcertions is a key responsibility of any coach. Looking at the issue on a bigger picture, some high school coaches see monitoring what goes on online as a way to ensure students are making good life choices and working towards becoming responsible and ethically sound individuals. Coach Cindy Hook of the girls field hockey team, does not actively search student online networks, but stated she will investigate any leads she may hear. “Drinking, partying, and alcohol are the fastest way to create what’s known as drama and destroy all we’ve worked for as a team,” said Hook,” “They come here to play field hockey, and they need to have responsibility towards that. I don’t follow them around but I encourage them to support each other, and if I hear about anything, I will follow up on it completely and thoroughly.” She does this not because she is, “looking for that [negative] behavior,” but rather is, “look ing for them to make the right choices.” Despite her serious message and efforts towards developing her teams character, many individuals on the field hockey team see her efforts as too extreme. A number of AHS field hockey athletes, who requested to remain unnamed, believe that Hook’s policies are too aggressive and lead to divides within the team. Junior Madeline Irwin drew the line seperating privacy and security, “between safety and going out and actually finding people. You don’t try to divide a team to find a partier,” she said, “I think the policy is too strict.” Although many field hockey student athletes feel this way, Hook remains steadfast in working towards helping students to make proper choices. “This is the whole reason I coach,” she said, “to help them develop as a person.” Searches of profiles online remains a debated issue, but at AHS it seems that an accepted balance has been struck between privacy and student safety. Social networking profiles are almost exclusively left private with the exception of cases in which suspicions of unbecoming behavior already exist. “It’s a public place,” said senior Ki Lee, “they [school staff] has a right to look through. You just need to be careful what you put on.” In general students are intelligent about the material posted online and aware that anyone could be watching. In the end it seems no balance between privacy and safety has been broken or any line been crossed. While privacy on the Internet is a myth, sensibility among students and respect among administration has created an acceptable environment for AHS students online.