California Wants to Expel Students for Sexting: Is It a Good Idea?

Well geting pregnant and puting it all on your family to take care of is kinda dumb dont you think? I mean If they let kids do whatever this will happen and it has because the parents dont care or there daughters and sons dont care. Also you have a big heart ack because the guy leaves you because you had the baby or that he only wanted sex from you thats not to bright why run your virginity to some loser at school that dosen't see you the way you want him too. And you think he does untill the end. And everyone at school will talk about them. Does that sound good and you could meet a child rapest would that make you happy if that happened because they let the teen do whatever? You could meet him on the enter net or at school or any where like walking with your friends to the park at night because you wanted to. My causin just because she wanted to she oh most died by walking to the park alone every day and it was sunny and this guy with a red truck came stalking her and when she went to go home he followed her. She doged for the house near by and banged on the door than just stayed there she thought she lost him but wasnt for sure shes 16 when this happened. And finally made it home safe. Do you think that that would be such a smart thing to say let teens like my self make our own mistakes because will learn from them. What if you cant because the guy hurt you? And my causin could of died for makeing that choice of her own. I only say this because I want you to think about it I dont want you to go threw what my causin went threw I dont want anyone to ok?

yes I think they should people have died fom txting people so It is a big deal. But they should have there parents told about this and talk some since in to these parents also. But they should keep a close eye one these people because they probly dont care enough to stop no matter what. It would be good if the school had a talk to them about how serious this is show them details of what happens to people who do this. look up about what happens to people in these incidents but if you are txting some guy or girl you KNOW BE CAREFULL DONT LOOSE WHAT YOU HAVE NOW!! undecided WHAT how could yopu be undecided about this dont loose your virginity to some guy maybe one you thought was your lover or you got cought in his trap so you just fall in to his arms than when he drops you than you will feel sorry. You will feel like you thought he cared about you or how you felt he dosen't. He just knows your valnerable even if you are a loner to eveyone out there here me out It does not mater you cant love them they dont love if they do if they want more than that still stop you cant meet them you can't touch them you can't here them they might sound romantic but they might be useing you. Or think they cant hold you they cant love on you. JUST THINK PLEASE I dont want to hurt you by saying this its just true life sucks people suck. And than we die WEll thats how I think of it I never feel that well I have to tell my self it will get better its hard to bare but trust me you will feel better saying no than yes. THINK ABOUT IT. THEY will try to find you they will and when they do they will kill you. I still can't beleave It is true my self but those people do exist.JUST LET IT SINK IN OK. WILL YOU???? FIND a hobby to do dont get addicted like I omost did. Dot tell your name or address or last name I dont care please dont do it. I dont want to say this and than you do it any ways and kill your self. When hard times come around just bare with me as I say this dont kill your self please talk to your mom or sister or a family friend boyfriend that you see at school and he cares and listens to you tell him not just anyone make sure he sees you for who you really are. IF YOU READ THIS YOU WONT REGRETY IT. JUST STOP BEING DUMB LIKE MANY DO AND ATNOLIGE that this is not a good way to say hay I got a life because you dont he will never meet you. OK!!!!!!!!!!!

Regardless of the type of use or content involved, if phone use is disrupting class then the schools should address it.

That said, there are at least two big problems with this. First is that yet another nanny state (not surprising that it's a state like California) makes the decision to legislate a penalty regarding an issue which is outside government purview. If a kid is sending that type of message to someone else, whether it's during school hours or not, it's something their family should handle. All that a school should need to do is temporarily confiscate the phone and notify the parents.

Secondly, this is another in a long line of poorly thought out no tolerance policies which have not resulted in improving the schools or student performance. I have yet to see where suspensions, and/or expulsions for things like hair color, drawing "threating" stick figures, and other equally criminal acts, has helped to better educate students in the slightest. I have no doubt that in time there will be cases of kids getting expelled for something that wasn't sexting, but was taken as such or thought to be close enough to count by a clueless school staff member.

It's somewhat ironic that the same people who support minimum sentences for certain criminal offenders in are unanimously in favor of maximum penalties for non-criminal students. There is also a certain hypocrisy in the democrat dominated California senate unanimously deciding that students should be expelled for the something that's considered acceptable behavior for a democrat member of the U.S. congress.

Lots of luck with making this stick. Or getting parent support.

In the first place, there can hardly EVER be a reason why a student should be using a phone in school. (exception: I once had a senior who was a volunteer fireman.) It should be put in the locker at the start of school and not retrieved until school ends. If a parent (or work) needs to contact a student, he/she can either call the school and have the message relayed - or he/she can leave a message that the kid can get at the end of the school day.

School is for learning. Like school stuff. Not for the free lunch. Not to be with your friends. And, not to be a place where mom and/or dad can leave you for babysitting. (And, oh, tell the teacher that she can't correct the exposed butt, boobs, or belly!) Certainly not a "studio" to create "porn".

Unfortunately, SEXTING doesn't originate (usually) in school. It doesn't seem "fair" that a "crime" committed one place, should remove you from some place else.

SEXTING - sending or receiving sexually explicit "data" - is scary. (and long-lasting) While it's yet again another life lesson the politicians are trying to dump on the schools, I'm not so sure simple expulsion will work. But, if expulsion is enforced, I would go after not only the "perpetrator" of the SEXT, but also whomever he/she was with at the time, as well as every kid who forwarded the pictures / message.

Some kind of enforced counseling (while REMOVED FROM THE SCHOOL ENVIRONS) is at least a start on trying to make the point that this is destructive, and somehow un-fixable behavior.

There are several issues at play here. I agree with policies limiting phone use in school, regardless of nature, provided the rules aren't along the lines of the poorly thought out (if thought out at all) no tolerance policies becoming so prevalent in schools throughout the country. However, no such policy would solve the problems you named, as kids have engaged in copying tests, arranging to skip class, and communicating messages, even sexual ones, with each other since long before the microchip came along. The technology changes how such things are done but it is not responsible for such actions.

As for sexting itself, it is not necessarily deviant behavior as you state. As in most things, the context and surrounding facts need to be considered. For example, if Weiner was sexting with his wife it would be considered a very different situation than if he was sexting with that seventeen year old. While it all might be considered undesirable behavior, consensual sexting between school aged kids is very different than unsolicited, unwanted, malicious, etc., sexts sent to a particular individual. In reality that should be true regardless of age group.

You've mentioned professional and enforced intervention as a means of dealing with this issue. As with expulsion, this too is a disproportionately strict measure unless there is much more to an individual instance, e.g. an ongoing pattern of threatening sexual texts, or accompanying stalking behavior, etc. A tenth grade couple exchanging sexts does not warrant professional counseling or professional anything, based upon that fact alone. It warrants their families talking to the kids, and perhaps the other kid's family. Kids sometimes don't think things through or do stupid things because they're kids. Though some parents might argue this, being a teenager is not a mental disorder. They should be taught the potential cost of a poorly thought out actions and how to apply good judgment when using the internet, not subjected to draconian punishments for the “crime” of being kids.

Beyond the problem of increasingly frequent government intrusion where it doesn't belong, what gets me most is the blatant hypocrisy. Politicians can cheat on their spouses, tell ridiculously transparent lies in effort to cover their infidelity, and have little or nothing happen to them for it. Yet these politicians want to hold students who have not yet fully matured, to standards far in excess of those that they hold themselves to. More of the “do as I say, not as I do” and “it's different when we do it” mentality brought to us courtesy of career politicians. That's the real problem here.