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Comment by tyleo | Hacker News Reader

Did you even read the article? For the example at the top, all the stuff these kids did was well documented. I don’t understand how having a phone helps here except to add even more distraction in school and another avenue for surveillance.

The kids used a school communication program to say something racist. Schools should monitor school communication platforms.

The only thing I disagree with is the level of punishment (sending a kid to jail for a night).

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Yes. I think some are pointing out that this crazy level of surveillance is at Orwellian levels. Why are kids even messaging each other on these platforms? I know books and paper is old school, but it does the job well. If they have to use some kind of internal system, then a racist joke could've led to a detention and parent/teacher talk. It didn't need to auto-flag law enforcement and traumatize the kid for life. Involuntary commitment at school sounds as unAmerican as it gets.

Edit: the threat of violence is obviously not acceptable in an age of horrifying events like school shootings. I think that goes without saying, but wanted to add to my above comment. As I unfortunately didn't make it super clear.

However, there should be a way to address the risk and prevent acts of terrorism without turning into a police state. A more reasonable response might have been to have the parents come by for a long meeting with the principal, school counselor, and school resource officer to talk about the severity of making such statements - even if she did make it sarcastically as tone/intent is difficult to judge. Then suspend the student for a day or so and have the school resource officer periodically check to ensure she didn't bring any weapons.

To play devil's advocate though, I can't imagine the stress from parents who have children of Mexican descent in such a situation.

AND strip searching them, AND not allowing communication with their parents...

I don’t understand your point. It seems like you are saying, “this punishment is so severe we shouldn’t be correcting the behavior at all.”

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