Student Emily Gibson (age 16) attends Lebanon High School and recently at her school a fellow student took their own life to bullying. Gibson, outraged at the lack of response from the school, made a video speaking out against bullying and demanding change. The school then took action, against her.
Gibson’s video became a viral hit. She spoke passionately about change and more importantly, how little anyone at her school cared or felt about bullying or one another. Gibson described the high school to be a dreary place, with blank white walls and no emotion. She went on to say in the face of bullying and injustice the school and its people look away and take no action. “Kids will be kids” she says in reference to her administration in response. As the video gained traction and attention the school finally had a response. They chose to give Gibson a two-day in-school suspension. Their reasoning? The video was filmed in a classroom without teacher permission. Gibson states that she had two coaches give her permission, but the school claimed otherwise. If the school is correct in this statement then yes, they can suspend her. This suspension does propose the question of what is allowed when it comes to video or photographic documentation. In the current age most people have some form of camera. But the high school is a public school, and as a student only filming herself, is it considered against the rules? The article published by Kptv.com “16-year-old suspended after anti-bullying video goes viral” states the the principle and fellows staffs feelings were hurt by the video. The principle also states that students and teachers have come to speak to him on how they disagree with the video. Regardless of the feelings of students the principle still feels the punishment was just but is it truly?
In the end it comes down to school policy as there are no strict black and white rules on these matters. Some believe that the school did this in order to punish her for speaking out while the school states that is was for the classroom filming. If the classroom filming truly is the issue and not the school trying to save face, is a suspension a fair punishment? In this reporters opinion it is not. The school had no right to suspend the girl. The video was taken by herself of herself, Gibson did not violate any ones privacy and did not show anything that was worthy of a suspension. The idea of taking a video on school property being suspension worthy is absurd, in the modern age videos and photos are taken everywhere, so when a video of girl took of herself is suspension worthy then the suspension or policies of videos are up to debate.