International Law

The Chicago Tribune discusses an interesting phenomenon of the YouTube-age:

Huddled around a cell phone in a West Chicago school, the five boys immediately caught a teacher's eye because the use of such devices is banned there. But when officials looked more closely, they discovered a new disciplinary issue. The 8th graders were using the camera phone to watch video of a fake fight they staged in a bathroom at Benjamin Middle School. They had filmed multiple rounds of a shoving match -- no more than a couple of minutes long -- and planned to post it on YouTube.

"I'd read about instances like that," said Philip Ehrhardt, superintendent of Benjamin School District 25. "We weren't aware of it being done here."

 

The students involved were suspended, from one to four days for engaging in potentially dangerous behavior. School districts throughout the Chicago area have discovered, often painfully, that video-recorded fights have become an Internet rage for teens and young adults.

Confronted with legions of Web-savvy students willing to push the envelope, educators increasingly are caught in a bind as they try to make sure bones aren't broken while not stifling creativity, experts say. Administrators at Benjamin are considering offering classes on blogging and video techniques to channel misguided activities into productive learning.

Read more here.

(Hat tip: Tech Law Prof Blog.)