"Off the Team" via MySpace

Posted by Barbara Pytel Jan 19, 2007

There was a party Saturday night. You had a great time. Several students were there with digital cameras and cell phones. You were so funny that they took pictures of you and posted onto their MySpace website. You were obviously intoxicated. And, if everyone already couldn't tell, the can of Bud Light in one hand and a cigarette in the other were dead giveaways that you were doing something that was against the rules for an athlete. You like these pictures so much you post them onto your website to announce to the world that you are a "cool dude."

Sunday morning is your wake up call. The phone is ringing with friends that saw your picture. It is still funny until your principal is sent the picture from MySpace. It is now no longer funny. You are brought before the athletic committee and suspended from play. Is this legal?

The courts have upheld an athletic association's right to suspend students based on this evidence. Athletics is not a mandatory activity. You abide by the guidelines or you are out.

There is a second surprise. Your college admissions counselor decides to google your name and sees your great, funloving picture, too. She decides that you probably don't deserve the scholarship she had considered. Your character is not what they had in mind for the recipient of the $3000 scholarship. Your grades were good and you had great letters of recommendation but this was a side of you the college didn't care for.

A picture is worth a thousand words. People have been fired from jobs because of things they have said or done on MySpace. Don't be doing things you wouldn't want your mother to find out about, or an admissions counselor, or a boss. And, never put it on MySpace. Once something is put on the internet, it is there forever....somewhere.

Read previous articles on Educational Issues.

Copyright article 2007 Barbara Pytel. All Rights Reserved.