A new North Carolina law on cyber-bulling became effective in December, and now students can now be fined or jailed for harassing their teachers online.
The School Violence Prevention Act of 2012 allows for students to be charged if they commit actions that are done “with the intent to intimidate or torment a school employee.” The crime can warrant up to $1,000 or 60 days in jail.
The act includes a wide range of actions such as creating false social media accounts for school employees, posting real or altered images of faculty, signing teachers up for pornography or spam, making statements with the intent to stalk or harass faculty, and even sending repeated emails or other forms of electronic communication to a staff member.
Other pieces of legislation have been passed in North Carolina, including the 2009 School Violence Prevention Act and Protect Our Kids/Cyber Bullying Misdemeanor, both of which protect students from cyber-bullying.
Although the law was certainly passed with good intentions, many people think the law poses dangerous threats to students. The American Civil Liberty Union of North Carolina opposes the law for several reasons.
Mike Meno, the communications director for ACLU of North Carolina, explained that the law was “broad and vague.” Anything that can be considered “intimidating” can result in charges. “An example of this would be if a high school student posts something on a social networking site, like Twitter, about how he disagrees with the plays a football coach made, then that student can face criminal charges,” Meno explained.
Students can also get in trouble for saying things that are true. The law says that any statement “whether true or false, intending to immediately provoke, and that is likely to provoke, any third party to stalk or harass a school employee,” can result in charges.
“If a student reveals an inappropriate student-teacher relationship, says they are ‘tired’ of a certain faculty member, or posts that they disagree with a decision made by school administrators, it could be considered criminal,” said Meno.
“This chills free speech and would deter students from posting anything,” Meno said. “It also sets a bad precedent for young, impressionable students. It teaches students that it’s not okay to criticize authority figures or government officials,” Meno said.
The law is also “potentially unconstitutional” because it criminalizes free speech. The law has blatant disregard for the First Amendment, according to Meno.
ACLU also argues that the charges are disproportionate to the offense. Meno said that young high school students often make remarks on the Internet without thinking them through, but that does not mean that they should be faced with criminal charges.
Meno suggested that “the smartest thing to do is to repeal the law.” There are already things in place in school systems that deal with these types of situations. “Sixteen year olds should not have a criminal record for one statement they made online,” Meno said.
The ACLU of North Carolina is asking for any student that has been charged under the new law to contact their office and submit a report.
Lt. David Kelly, operations manager and public information officer for the Campus Police, said that there have not been many cases involving cyber-bullying at N.C. State. However, he pointed out that the new law is a revision to previous laws and suggests that students and faculty members look into the specifics of the new law to ensure that they do not break the law.
Oftentimes when students post something negative online, even if it is in fun or jest, they do not realize that “the possible ramifications are far greater than what is originally expected,” Kelly said.
Kelly encourages students to think twice about things they post online, especially if it contains negative information about another student or a faculty member. “Once the information is posted online, you can’t control where that information goes,” Kelly said.
