Violation of privacy

Celizic, Mike. "Teacher Fired for Premarital Sex." Today Show. MSNBC Interactive, 14 June 2010. Web. 12 Feb. 2012.

• Summarize: In Florida, a teacher was fired for having premarital sex. Jarretta Hamilton, the teacher at a Christian school, had her privacy invaded following the termination of her position when the principal told other teachers and the parents of her students about what happened. Hamilton said she was just being honest when she was asked about when her daughter was conceived. Hamilton was requesting maternity leave from Jon Ennis, the principal, when the conversation escalated he questioned her marriage and when she conceived her daughter and she gave him the honest answer. A week later she was notified that she was fired for fornication. This video shows that not only do students have their privacy violated, but teachers do as well, even for things outside of school. This situation does exist elsewhere as well, because the today show mentions how other teachers have had similar lawsuits.

• Assess: I do not believe the person who wrote this can relate to the situation because he does not make any bias's or comments regarding a personal experience, but I do believe that he may have dealt with privacy cases before or similar stories. I believe the story is accurate because the host spoke to Hamilton and they spoke to the principal in a prerecorded report. I do not think it is up-to-date because I know there is probably a more recent case on a teachers privacy being violated, but the story itself is not older than two years.

• Reflect: I disagree with the teacher getting fired for having premarital sex. I understand it is a Christian school and those are their morals, but it isn't like they have a contract that says you can not work here if you have premarital sex. If it was set as a requirement, then maybe I would understand more, but I honestly think the principal overreacted and went too far with even questioning her personal life, let alone telling the entire staff and the children's parents. I do believe the principal was discriminating in this situation. No one is perfect and everyone does sin sometimes.

"High School Not Confidential When Officials Search Student Cell Phones." Chicago Tribune. Chicago Tribune. 5 Feb. 2012. Web. 16 Feb. 2012.

• Summarize: At Stevenson High School in Chicago, students are having their cell phones confiscated if they are suspected of bullying or selling drugs and then have the messages read. The article relates this to how when a teacher would catch students writing notes, they would read them to the class. This is an invasion of the students privacy because it doesn't seem to have "reasonable" cause to some people. This article was written to again relate to other situations similar to this and to show it does happen. This specific article relates the story to a thirteen year old being forced to allow an administrator to check her underwear for pills.

• Assess: I do not believe this writer has expertise in this topic but I do believe the writer has a strong opinion on this subject. Throughout the article the writer provides examples of invasion of privacy that lean towards the invasion of it rather than the protection. The article is somewhat accurate but I know it could be more accurate. This article is very recent so it shows how violation of students privacy does exist. I would say this is up-to-date since the article is not even a month old.

• Reflect: I personally am a little torn between with who I agree with on this subject. I agree that if there is suspicion that a student is selling drugs or harrassing another student by phone, they should have some interaction to stop it, but as going as far as confiscating the phone and reading the messages I think is inappropriate. I loved how the writer says "Cellphones are a fact of modern life, particularly for young people, and they shouldn't be invaded except for serious problems that can't be prevented otherwise. It's a high school — not a medium security prison." because it is true! A lot of people text these days and I would be worried about someone assuming I was bullying someone or selling drugs and getting it wrong because they would be going through my phone for nothing. I definitely do not support bullying at all so any way to stop it would be great, I just am not sure about the whole reading things aloud to those surrounding would be a good idea because it is an invasion of privacy.
  
  Jessica