Students Disciplined for Facebook/Myspace?

So the Burleson school district has decided not to discipline the student for the contents of her Myspace page (I thought everybody had moved to Facebook, anyway). This is a tricky and complex issue, and I thought the facts were especially bad for the school district. One of the basic things we learn in law school is that good facts make good law and bad facts make bad law. These were bad facts for Burleson.

Tha being said, it's amazing to me how many people seem to be unaware or unconcerned about what they post online (he says as he posts this stuff online). Like it or not, agree or disagree, the web is a public place. You shouldn't rely, as the student did, on the page you post the bad stuff onas being "private"; it's on the web: somebody can and will find it. I have often told students that in the old days, my company automatically used an applicant's credit report as a hiring qualification in the belief it was indicaitve of the applicant's character. If I was in human resources or looking to hire anyone these days, I think I would do a full-fledged internet search on that person, and I would include Facebook, Myspace, and anything else I could think of to get more information about an applicant. Someone's postings quickly give you a clue about how clueless someone is.