Friday, October 8, 2010

BBC News - India students suspended for rude Facebook messages

BBC News - India students suspended for rude Facebook messages: "A leading school in India has suspended 16 students for posting rude remarks about a woman teacher on the popular social networking site, Facebook.

The comments were started by a student of Chandigarh's prestigious Vivek High School who was angry with his math teacher for giving him low grades.

Fifteen other classmates were suspended for allegedly egging him on.

Facebook has nearly 12 million Indian subscribers and the site is hugely popular with young urban Indians.

High school student Asaf Pervez initiated the online 'thread' by posting images of his test scores alongside 'rude and abusive' remarks, the school management said.

The 'abusive' thread soon became a regular forum for the school's senior students to indulge in teacher-bashing, an official said.

The comments were discovered by chance a week later by a faculty member.

Shocked at what she saw, the teacher reported the matter to the school management, which responded by suspending the students.

'We cannot tolerate indiscipline, particularly disrespect towards any teacher,' school director HS Mamik, who ordered a three-month suspension after individually meeting parents of each of the 16 teenagers, said.

'The comments posted are not just negative but obscene, rude and abusive.'"

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