MySpace.com, an online chat room for teenagers,
has recently become extremely popular. Tons have kids who have
joined this free Web site in order to digitally connect with their
friends. As many people know, each person creates a personal
profile page.
This contains quotes, blogs, pictures and comments. Your
friends can leave messages in order for an online conversation to
form. This online profile can oftentimes only be accessed by
approved friends because the page often contains personal
information.
Recently at Ponderosa High School, MySpace has created quite a
stir. Like every year, the annual Poms/Dance team's tryouts are
being held at our school.
This is quite a process which includes four days of
workshops, a tryout day, a complete tryout packet and a personal
interview. Yes, all of that for a spot on the dance team.
The issue, however, is solely revolving around MySpace.
Recently a former member of one of the Poms teams made a joking
remark stating, "I'm finally out of the cult".
This was funny to anyone who knows her because she is
extremely sarcastic and the word cult was used very loosely.
The Ponderosa Poms/Dance program is very
extreme and time consuming. Oftentimes it becomes a girl's life.
This is why sometimes the word cult is brought up.
This former member posted this remark on her personal
MySpace. Someone at our school read this quote and reported it
directly to the Varsity Poms coach at our school, Mrs.
Angela Ottmann. This is where the problem truly
began.
After finding out about the remark, girls trying out for Poms
said that Mrs. Ottman was very upset. She obviously did not find
the remark amusing. Instead of letting it go, she decided to look
further into it, according to the girls.
Girls trying out for the team said she looked up all the
current MySpace's of former members re-trying out for the team this
year. Furthermore, she read their personal pages and questioned
many of the girls about them at their personal interview.
She even printed out comments from one account and presented
this to one of the girls during her interview, according to girls
trying out.
These girls are trying out for a dance team and at their
interview they were being interrogated for any comment they had
said about Poms during the last several months.
Do you think that there is one person who has never gotten
frustrated and said a negative comment? Now any/all of these
comments are being held against the girls.
Also as policy for the upcoming year, it is believed that
Mrs. Ottmann suggested to one student during her interview that all
Poms cancel their MySpace accounts.
My question is simply, "Isn't this against the First
Amendment?" Students should have the right to say whatever they
want as part of their freedom of speech. It is understandable that
negative comments may not be tolerated while being a current member
of the team. However, many factors have to be included. High school
students are often under a lot of pressure and the frustration can
get to them. Also the original comment posted on My Space was not
by a current member of the team.
Editor's Note: YourHub.com was contacted by a school district
official who disputed the accuracy of this story. Ottmann did not
return calls from YourHub.com Tuesday.