Discipline and surveillance: school's attitude

Pretty silly attitude for a school: education should be about transparency of thinking.
And of course completely illegal, thus scary:

"School Accused Of Spying On Kids In Their Homes With Spyware That Secretly Activated Webcams" TechDirt 18 February 2010

MySpace and the extent of school discipline

if the facts are accurate, I found it particularly scary. School discipline like for any discipline can only be applied for what happen within the institution. This is a clear breach of the disciplinary powers and an abuse of process.
Teens Sue School After Being Disciplined For MySpace Photos (TechDirt, 2 November 2009)

Misuse of criminal law

Student Found Guilty Of 'Disturbing The Peace' For Sending Nasty Political Email To Professor Techdirt: "Student Found Guilty Of 'Disturbing The Peace' For Sending Nasty Political Email To Professor" (TechDirt, 18 June 2009)

How sending an e-mail can breach the peace, I am puzzled. It was not a collective e-mail, say to the whole of the University, what would have justified (maybe) the analogy of the public forum. At most, the e-mail, if repeated at least once, would fall within harassment, but certainly not breach of the peace.
Disciplinary actions might also be foreseen if the university charter of conduct was breached

Defamation/insult online and disciplinary action

The basis for a disciplinary action is that the context is that of discipline. The offence has been committed within specific area/location (a school, an office, a prison) or in relation to a group often regulated specifically (e.g.: doctors) . The sanction aims at maintaining order within that location or within that group. I don't see how comments online outside school hours and outside the school itself can fit than notion of discipline. THen if it is not discipline, only civil law applies and in very rare cases, criminal law.

"Judges Divided On Right Of Schools To Punish Students For Mocking Principals Online" (TechDirt, 9 June 2009)

Cyberbullying, discipline and crime

Cyberbullying is already an offence as long as it fits within the definition of harassment. So no need of any new offence. And like all crimes, it can give rise to disciplinary sanctions. And like all disciplinary sanctions, a lot of interpretation is given to the disciplinary institutions. Nothing new, everything under scrutiny by judicial review. It is especially with the ECHR artilce 6.

"Student Sues School For Suspending Her Over Facebook Group" (10 December 2008) I wonder to which extent the article confuses legal issues and factual issues (whether there was bullying or not)

Cybercrime sanctions = disciplinary action

an other facet of cybercrime, disciplinary action for what could constitute criminal offense
http://www.crime-research.org/news/10.09.2008/3565/ (10 sept 2008) "Carleton collars hacker"