Internet safety and court cases resulting from bad behavior online

1. Technology & The Law

2. The following scenarios are real.
The facts of the case are presented first. Think about them,
and decide what you would do or what should be done about
them. The slides that follow are the decisions or rulings that
were the outcomes.
A breakdown of the courts is on the next slide. Some of the
cases are from different courts.

3. Court System
State Court - civil
and criminal cases
involving state and
local laws
Federal Court -
cases involving the
U.S. Constitution
and its
Amendments, or
laws passed by
Congress
Trial Court - cases
before a judge or
jury
State Trial Courts -
includes Juvenile,
Municipal, Justice,
Traffic, Police,
Superior
Federal Trial Courts
- U.S. District Court
Appellate Court -
trial court decisions
may be appealed
and sent to higher
appellate courts
State Appellate
Courts - Court of
Appeals, State
Supreme Court
Federal Appellate
Courts - U.S. Circuit
Court, U.S.
Supreme Court

4. University of Oklahoma
incident: Fraternity brothers on a bus (not a
school event) sing a racist chant
The Facts:

5. The videos (2 of them) that are recorded by
students on the bus is posted to social media

6. Results:
Students are thrown out of the fraternity house the
next day, and the charter is revoked by the University
After an investigation two of the fraternity members are
expelled from the University

7. Statements made by the two students:
”I am deeply sorry for what I did Saturday night. It was wrong and
reckless. I made a horrible mistake by joining into the singing and
encouraging others to do the same," Rice said in the statement. "On
Monday, I withdrew from the university, and sadly, at this moment our
family is not able to be in our home because of threatening calls as
well as frightening talk on social media."
"For me, this is a devastating lesson and I am seeking guidance on
how I can learn from this and make sure it never happens again," Rice
said.
Rice said Saturday's incident was "likely was fueled by alcohol," but
"that's not an excuse."

8. Meanwhile, Pettit's parents released an online
statement that said, "he made a horrible mistake,
and will live with the consequences forever."

9. The Facts:
Justin Swidler from Cherry Hill, N.J., got a computer as a
present from his parents on his 14th birthday. He used it to
create a website titled "Welcome to Teacher Sux" that solicited
cash to pay for his math teacher's assassination.
It included a picture of her face morphing into Hitler with a
caption “Why I should die.”

10. For nearly a decade, Justin Swidler's state Supreme Court
case gave school officials the power to discipline students for
what they said on the Internet using their home computers.
Justin was expelled, although no charges were brought
against him.
The Results:

11. Last year, a federal appeals court deciding two Pennsylvania
cases, including one from Schuylkill County, took that power
away.
The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear appeals of that
decision by school officials who had sought clarification on
when they can regulate students' speech outside school.
Now a lawyer, he admits the website was
childish and offensive, Swidler maintains
school officials were wrong to discipline him.
"It was novel at the time for a student to make
a website about their teachers," he said.
"Unbeknownst to me … I set the law in
Pennsylvania for a generation of students."

12. The Facts:
Two students created a fake profile of their principal
in which she was identified as a drug user with a sexually
transmitted disease. The page also attacked hearing
impaired students at her school.

13. The Results:
The principal didn’t care about the personal attack, but set
out to protect the other students so filed a lawsuit for
defamation and invasion of privacy against the social network.
The case was dismissed when the social network
disclosed the names of the two students that created
the profile. The students confessed and were disciplined.

14. The Facts:
A student in a Washington high school filmed his English
teacher without her knowledge or consent and posted it to
YouTube with derogatory comments in a soundtrack with the
film. He also added some less than tasteful editing, and was
about to compete in the state championship for a Math
contest.

15. The teacher learned of the video because a local news
channel discovered it while doing a story about YouTube!

16. The student was disciplined by the school and forced to miss
the competition.
His parents sued the school because they felt they denied
their son’s right to free speech.
The Results:

17. The Results:
The school maintained he was disciplined for his conduct
(creating the unauthorized video) and not for his speech.
The district court agreed that it was not the editing and posting
that was the problem, but that it was unauthorized shooting
violated school policy.
When interviewed four years later he said “Don’t fall victim to
peer pressure, it will usually make you end up hating what you
did. And if that someone is pressuring you too hard, then you
should re-think your friendship with them.”

18. The Facts:
State v. Alpert (Florida, 2008)
After breaking up with his 16 year old girlfriend, 18 year old
Phillip Alpert sent a nude picture of her to over 70 people,
including her parents, grandparents and teachers.

19. The Results:
He was charged with sending child pornography and was
convicted. He was sentenced to five years probation, and
required to register as a sex offender until his 43rd birthday.

20. The Facts:
“Mafiaboy” was the screen name of a 15 year old Canadian
student. He jammed major web sites including CNN, Amazon,
and Yahoo, and hacked into the systems at Yale and Harvard.
Damages were estimated at $7.5 million.

21. The Results:
Judge Gilles Ouellet ruled on Wednesday that the 17-year-
old Montreal teenager committed a criminal act when he
crippled internet sites like Buy.com, eBay and Yahoo! last
year, causing an estimated $1.7 billion in damages.
The boy, who pleaded guilty in January to 55 charges of
mischief, cannot be identified under a Canadian law
protecting young offenders. He showed no emotion at the
sentencing hearing.
Ouellet also ordered the teenager to face one year of
probation after his detention ends and fined him C$250
(U.S. $160). He will be allowed occasional visits to family
and friends during his time in detention.

22. Reference:
Jacobs, T. (2010). Teen cyberbullying investigated.
Minneapolis, MN: Free Spirit Pub.