Prime News
Schools act against students for 'flaming' teachers on blogs
Sandra Davie Liaw Wy-Cin
514 words
27 September 2005
Straits Times
English
(c) 2005 Singapore Press Holdings Limited
FREE speech may be the buzzword on the Internet - but libel is unacceptable everywhere.
The message has been sent out loud and clear, with five junior college students being punished for posting offensive remarks about two teachers and a vice-principal online.
The students, all girls, were made to remove the remarks from their Internet diaries, or blogs, and suspended for three days last month. Their parents were also informed.
The case is not an isolated one. Of the 31 secondary schools and junior colleges contacted, 18 said they were seeing more such incidents as the number of bloggers surges.
Seven secondary schools and two JCs have asked bloggers who criticise or insult their teachers online - 'flaming' in Internet jargon - to remove the offending remarks.
One such remark referred to a secondary school teacher as a 'prude' for disciplining a student for wearing a too-short skirt. 'Frustrated old spinster. Can't stand to see attractive girls,' the blog read.
Tanglin Secondary science and PE teacher Tham Kin Loong said: 'I've had vulgarities hurled against me, my parents and my whole family in some students' blogs.'
The 33-year-old added: 'Most of them do not realise the legal implications of what they are writing in such a public domain.'
If teachers wish to prosecute, they may have legal grounds to do so.
Singapore Teachers' Union general secretary Swithun Lowe said the union is ready to back any teacher who wants to take legal action. It has offered legal help to a few members, but they did 'not want to affect the prospects of their young students'.
Lawyers say students can be sued for defamation, even if a teacher is not named. 'As long as someone is able to identify the teacher, and it is an untrue statement that affects his reputation or livelihood, then the student is liable,' said Ms Doris Chia of Harry Elias and Partners.
An injunction can be taken to get the student to remove the blog and issue an apology, she added.
But none of the schools contacted by The Straits Times has banned blogging. Rather, many English and General Paper teachers encourage it to improve students' language and writing skills.
Schools also said they do not police blogs. They say they only check them after complaints are made.

Comments:

This is a good example of bad free speech, which I feel will solve nothing. “Flaming” teachers behind their back doesn’t help students of teachers in anyway (expect for their English which may or may not improve considering the language and short forms commonly used in Blogs), in fact, things may get worse for the student, aside from being punished, he may get “blacklisted” by the teachers. This type of free speech has no purpose but to insult others, should it be allowed? Maybe it can be allowed on a small scale, like in schools. But if we put it on a national scale, if one group of people insulted another group of people, it would probably result in a crisis.

Posted By Shen Boyuan