Trackback from juz brennan:

I'm pretty anal about the control that the gahmen is trying to enforce on us at the current moment. This issue was also brought up during the Ngee Ann Bloggy Seminar....

Trackback from From a Singapore Angle:

Freshly selected by the ST Editor, I assume. This one is called "Schools need balanced view on student blogs" by Jonathan Au Yong Kok Kong....

Trackback from singaporeclassics:

This is a little spate across cyberspace (and debated in the ST) about one of our most immediate relationships – with teachers....

Trackback from Double Yellow's Prestigious School in Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Area:

Funny also hor, how the letter to the newspaper spoke about blogging at an all boys school but the kids against who action was taken were all girls :) Guess that only means that there is more drama to come.......

If we choose to submit ourselves to the authorities in thought, word & deed, we shall never have anything to fear

"Too late, someone thought of racing ahead and shutting the five-barred gate; but in another moment the van was through it and rapidly disappearing down the road. Boxer was never seen again"

Trackback from Bloggers are all evil one, better catch them - mb:

More blogger news, front page too.

Five junior college students got into trouble for flaming two teachers and a vice-principal on their blogs....

Trackback from HeJin - prestigious all-boys schooo in Ang Mo Kio-Bishan area:

Hello, how many prestigious all-boys schools can you find in the Ang Mo Kio-Bishan area? But one must be understanding, and know that he cannot reveal his school name. It would totally ruin the secrecy of it all!...

Does anyone agree that students shouldn't launch personal attacks on teachers online? That they got into trouble isn't surprising, because it is just wrong to name and insult your teachers online. Just as you should not name and insult your colleague on your blog. A blog is just a website. If I write about your big fat ass on a website, and name you, do you think there's anything wrong with asking me to take down the comments? It's not like the students got sent to jail, for goodness' sakes.

As it is, teachers are highly stressed ppl who can't discipline naughty students properly. If in addition to all this, they have to fear being insulted online for doing their job, do you think teachers would bother to instil discipline in kids next time?

On the spurious analogies of teacher/student relationship to corporate peer/peer or boss/subordinate relationships -

These are kids. Kids. Let me say that again - Children. If they say that teachers are fat and ugly, how does it matter? If they say that teachers are wonderful and pretty, how does it matter again?

If they are angry with you for enforcing school rules, how does that matter to you?

Was it that those teachers -never- expected their dearly beloved younglings to insult their work and efforts at teaching them, at all? People get belittled for their work quality all the time, and not just by kids on blogs. Those teachers who take offense at kids' comments might want to grow up before they face the terrifying adult world of - horrors! - dealing with parents. Or with their own teenaged children.

I dunno man.

What did the kids say? that their teachers are "prudes" or "frustrated old spinster"?

You say that's worth a 3 day suspension?

Those guys are clamping down on us man.

And I feel sorry for them, they're going to be so frustrated, there are so many of us that they can't possibly win.

They're getting desperate.

It's a low, sinking feeling to be caught doing something soooo desperate as to be picking on kids.

Sooooooooo desperate.

Bwah hwah hwah.

Trackback from Used Brains for Sale:

This probably wasn’t in the job description, but I can assure you, that being a teacher is avenue enough to invite gossip, especially if you have some weird/annoying/hilarious mannerism....

Trackback from Reuters & Yahoo! News - Blog clampdown on Students begin:

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore schools have begun a clampdown on students who insult teachers in online journals by punishing them with suspensions, a newspaper reported on Tuesday.

...

Trackback from A Replacement to Writing?:

When I read this I wanted to laugh and cry at the same time. Why? Laugh because the part where they say "they did 'not want to affect the prospects of their young students' " is so ironic. ...

what about teachers who blog about the schools they teach in and the students they teach every day?
look at the examples taken from teachers' blogs on the web. why they attack students only??? shouldn't the teachers be more responsible also??? =(

e.g. "28/5/04 (Sad)
Today is my 1st day to my school,which i'm going to teach for the next 3years.Went to school to set up "my stall"(St.Gabriel's Pri was having their carnival tomorrow).Took a long time to know what i'm supposed to do, the worse part was that i was partnering with my Principal,how unlucky!She did nothing but to keep commanding me what to do.(haiz)What to do,I'm new here...After a few hours of setting up,we teachers have to go for a briefing about tomorrow's work.Everything lasted till 1230pm.I had my lunch with my new colleague who was also just graduated from NIE..."

"The new timetable sucks. They squeezed all my worst classes in 4 periods straight from Mon till Wed and most of the time, i dun even get time off to rest or eat until half the day is over. Do i have to get bullied like this simply because i'm new? My friend asked me to bear with it because BT is not supposed to speak up. To the hell with the system. Why should we BT suffer with lousy timetable so that the senior teachers can sit in the staffroom and breeze through every single day?"

This is just plain silly.

I actually came across several fake Friendster profiles of some teachers from my old school, which probably created by students who used it to mock the teachers. One of which was even the profile of the prinicpal. The way things go, it's a matter of them before they clamp down on these Friendster accounts.

Trackback from theory.isthereason - One less thing for kids to blog about…:

...citizens will have to be more careful with what they say, especially online since it is a “policed” domain in as well. In other word, please don’t think too differently. Open criticisms have started to become a national past-time & crime....

Trackback from beconfused//perceived//privacy:

Unfortunately, publishing something in the world wide web is the wrong method. I can assure you there are lots of people who has blogged about their teachers saying they are gay or pairing them up with another teacher. ...

Trackback from World of Angel Pet - Student Bloggers:

That said, I think the students received unfair treatment. After all they are airing their views and they really don't like the teacher... so they should have the right to vent their frustrations ma....

Trackback from A Xeno Boy in Sg - ST Journalists' Blogging Handbook:

The above is 101. As a further extension of my graciousness in the face of infinite grace from you, my dear ST journalist, I extend an edited article on blogging which has raised some ire with bloggers for some fallacies....

Trackback from Army Daze - Teacher flaming bloggers:

What’s illegal offline will never be legal online. Please, watch what u write online....

Trackback from horsecrap:

... some guai lan machine that can read ppl's brain thinking what is invented den die loh.. teacher press press the machine happily den suddenly when u walk past den she say ' boy!! why u think i siao?! i punish you!!!' (ThoughtPolice)...

Trackback from God's Rainbow:

hell about such rantings. for all i know i might get sued for something like being anti government. HUH! like i know anything about politics. NAH. i only know our prime minister and president. who cares about the rest....

Trackback from The Moley Prophet - Bloggers Prison:

Those teachers who read about the bad stuff their students wrote about them, shouldn't just go and tell the students off... Get the discipline department to settle the students... Suspend them.. Cane them... What nonsense is this?...

Trackback from Everyone's Fool:

Wa seh I better be careful about what I write now. If I get sued for defamation I'm dead dead dead. Then I hope they have internet access in the Girls' Home because I don't want my email to burst....

Trackback from pIgGEr ThAn PiG BlOgGeD:

It could be anyone, your tuition school teacher? I think that there isn't really any freedom of speech on the internet, you can sued here and there even when I am typing this, I am scared that I might get sued too....

Trackback from scary straits times...:

oh well i suppose ranting that the law is against free speech shall be pointless as this is one of those cases where one must just mindlessly submit himself to authority without question. ...

the expedient thing to do for the common blogger would be to recant, or to take the earliest flight to Perth
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"A gander who had been privy to the plot had confessed his guilt to Squealer and immediately committed suicide by swallowing deadly nightshade berries"

Trackback from Born on Ninth of August - My boy will be suspended for scolding his teacher on his blog!:

But if the schools were to start invading these little private spaces called blogs, our teenagers could almost certainly release their rebelliousness via other means, which could be worse. ...

Trackback from Xiaxue - Fucking Unfair:

Which is the fucking JC which did this?

Childish. I look down on you, you fucking loser school. Get a freaking life, wimp. Wooo you cannot insult me! You say I fat! I cry! I commit suicide!...

wah.. so serious for what... seriously, if we're all taken so seriously, we should have a book with a compilation of all of singaporean blogger's posts.. and make moneyyyyyy outta it.

You'll be sued for copyright violation. ;)

Well if you punish students, they can't sue you back. If you punish adults they can. So clamping down on those who are less likely to take legal action against you may be a tempting way to take an ego-trip.

If life were that unbearable, then those who can afford to leave will, and those who cant will simply find other ways to voice their grievances. rather than harp on the inevitable, it might be more expedient to uproot your family and loved ones to friendlier skies
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"He said that Comrade Napoleon had learned with the very deepest distress of this misfortune to one of the most loyal workers on the farm, and was already making arrangements to send Boxer to be treated in the hospital at Willingdon"

Trackback from Reuters & Yahoo! News (correct link):

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore schools have begun a clampdown on students who insult teachers in online journals by punishing them with suspensions, a newspaper reported on Tuesday....

Trackback from Idle Days - The Fine Art Of Insulting People On Your Blog:

I personally think freedom of responsible speech is a whole lot better and more sensible than freedom of blatant speech. Many bloggers need to brush up on their PR spinning skills. Insults can still sound sweet if you coat with them with honey....

Trackback from Yuhui - print noview:

Is someone accusing you of blogging about something offensive? Is that someone also printing your blog? And is that person using his/her print-out of your blog as evidence of his/her accusation against you?...

Trackback from TNP - Student gets publicly flogged for blogging:

One Sec 2 student at a top girls' school in the Orchard Road area said that her teacher told off her class for using foul language in their blog entries....

Trackback from Dustzz fading memories on freedom of speech n blogging?:

blogging making headlines recently.. Why oni in Singapore? Narrow minded leaders in country??? read on to knw if u had the same situation ...

He has make a point here

see this guys take on the whole thing http://myzombifiedexistence.blogspot.com

Trackback from Trompe L'oeil:

Blog terrorism may be easy, and even fun for some. But a habit once formed is a habit that stays for a long, long time. And lest we forget, schools are still one of the best places where the seeds of good habits that last a lifetime can be planted....