I have recently been asked to watch several news clips from YouTube regarding the Megan Meier case. I have embedded the clips I have watched if you are unfamiliar with the case. I have also been asked to answer several questions about the case from my point of view. I find this an interesting topic and would like to hear others response to the questions I will be answering and I would appreciate any thoughts on my comments as well.
CNN Clip
NBC Today Clip
ABC News Clip
1. Who is responsible for Megan's Death? Is the people who created the factitious character "Josh", Megan's parents, MySpace? Perhaps provide percentages to each of these three groups as a means to measure responsibility. Is anyone else responsible?
It seems that there is a severe lack of accountability in our society today. So many want to blame others for the bad things that happen in their lives instead of looking at the situation as what could I have done better and taking responsibility for the problem. I see this problem all throughout this tragic event. I see Megan’s parents mostly blaming the people who created the false MySpace account, and the people who created the false account especially the mother are failing to take enough responsibility for their poor decisions. Ultimately I believe that the parents in both families are to blame I feel it was their responsibility to oversee their children’s internet use much more closely. In the case of Megan’s parents I believe that knowing that their daughter was an emotionally unstable person suffering from possible depression, ADD, and a possible personality disorder; should not have let Megan have a MySpace relations ship with someone they the parents did not know let alone someone she did not know in person. As far as I’m concerned the parent of the teen who created the MySpace page is to blame not so much in the death of Megan but it is her lack of parenting in not knowing how to act like an adult herself. The mother at least knew about the false account, and according to some participated in commenting on Megan’s account through the false account and did nothing to stop this inappropriate behavior. Secondly she is responsible for raising children who were incapable of taking responsibility for their action, nor understanding the effects of their poor decisions.
Overall I feel that the details of this case can be argued back and forth as to who is to blame and how much but in my opinion there is a problem in our society that runs much deeper; it appears that the number of people who are unable to take accountability for their actions and responsibilities. This lack of responsibility can be seen in all aspects of life I have included two essays that I have written one titled “An Evaluation of the College Student” and the second titled “COCC Students Struggle to get an Education” these two essays show other areas however not nearly as tragic as Megan’s story, that show the lack of accountability in our society today.
2. Realize that at the time Megan Meier set up her MySpace account she was under the minimum age that the MySpace required to participate in the website. Should there be some way to required age authentication? Would this violate any laws, amendment rights, personal privacy issues.?
There is a problem our society is facing today a rise in technology and young people being drawn not just to social networking sight, but there is email, instant messaging, cell phones, etc. the list goes on. If we look back there has recently been a large problem with “sexting” with minors sending sexually explicit photos of themselves to their boyfriend or girlfriend and then when authorities find out because the recipient decided to send the pictures to all their contacts because of a bad breakup or the word gets out in some cases these teens are being charged as felony sex offenders of being in possession of child pornography. Why? All because of a lack of parenting teaching and keeping their kids accountability for their actions. So the question is what to be done when no one wants to take responsibility for the situation when everyone points the finger at someone else? Is the answer to put more laws in the book? Should the social networking sights and cell phone companies be responsible? My feeling is absolutely not! This is a problem that needs to be handled at the home level parents need to look after their children know where they are and what they’re doing. Internet and cell phones should be a privilege not a right. Internet use can easily be restricted at home to not allow certain content and can be password protected so access is not allowed without parental supervision. There is a great article on http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/blog/grayson/social-networking-safety-acte which talks about the problems associated with states trying to put new laws in the books and trying to place responsibility on content providers to become police and look for illegal activity.
Essays
An Evaluation of the College Student
Who is responsible for a college student’s success or failure: the teacher, parents, or the school? When it comes right down to it, a student’s college experience is determined by only one person, themselves. College is the time when students sink or swim, succeed, or fail. College can be an important time of self-responsibility culminating in a well-earned degree or, college can be a time of excuses, hopelessness, and failure. Skip Downing, the writer of On Course, explains many reasons students fail when faced with decisions or undesirable outcomes. I believe that many lack the basic qualities that would allow them to be successful in college; they often make themselves victims, fail to take responsibility for their actions, and follow the wrong “inner voice.”
I believe many students find themselves becoming victims unknowingly, through the continual practice of bad habits that lead them down the same wrong path. For instance, if a student has poor study habits and procrastinates they end up trying to pull all nighters, cramming for a test the next day, or to finish projects they should have started weeks ago, leaving them caught up in a vicious circle. These students sometimes tell themselves that the next project will be different. Inevitably they end up making an excuse of some kind the next time a project or test comes up, always finding they “never have enough time.” This is the role of a victim according to Downing: “…when people keep doing what they’ve been doing even when it doesn’t work, they are acting as Victims [sic]” (25). Everyone has events happen in their lives that are out of their control, which truly does make them victims: getting in a car accident, having a loved one die, or being burglarized. However, there is a huge difference between students making themselves victims through their actions, and becoming victims through actions out of their control. I have heard so many students make themselves victims by placing blame on anything but themselves. These students are frequently heard saying things like: it is the teachers fault, they did not explain the assignment clearly, they told me incorrect information, and they do not like me so they gave me a bad grade the list goes on and on. Never do you hear these students say it was their fault, or they made poor decisions. Downing writes “After all, if you believe that someone or something out there causes all of your problems, then it’s up to “them” [the people who cause the problem] to change. What a wait that can be!”(25). How long will it take these students to take responsibility for their actions, instead of waiting for someone else to solve the problems they have created?
I discovered many students do not take responsibility for their actions. Taking personal responsibility is a choice. Many students do not realize, or care, and more often, do not even like acknowledging that they are actually in charge of their lives. As college students, there are so many actions that require choice. Rarely as a student does anyone lead you by the hand and take you step by step through choices that need to be made. Yet so many students seem to be waiting for exactly that. They no longer have their high school teachers telling them everything and not holding them accountable. Students in most cases do not have parents asking if they did their homework or asking if they went to class. But it looks like this is exactly what so many students are waiting for— to be led around from one decision to the next. For instance, no one tells you the answers to these dilemmas: should I watch TV or do my homework? Should I study or hope for the best, stay in school or drop out? All of these are very important decisions and making the wrong choices will eventually lead to failure, but these students blame their own problems and shortcomings on others. Students should realize it was their choices that caused their failure. Downing asserts, “The sum of the choices you make from this day forward will create the eventual outcome of your life” (26). So in other words if students fail to be accountable for their responsibilities they will rarely succeed or accomplish their goals. By saying it wasn’t their fault, there was nothing they could do, and no one could succeed in their circumstance. They doom themselves to failure. Downing quotes Barbara Reynolds saying, “Whatever reason you have for not being somebody, there’s somebody who had that same problem and over came it” (28).There are always excuses to be given, whether said out loud or said to oneself, by your “inner voice”.
We all have an “inner voice” we listen to, argue with, or use to problem solve. Students who do poorly in school often listen to one of two types of inner voices. Downing refers to them as the “Inner Critic” (30), and the “Inner Defender” (30). The “Inner Critic” “is the internal voice that judges us as inadequate” (30). It tells students that they are never good enough or that they will never amount to anything. It points out all of the student’s flaws, even those that may not relate to the problem that they are facing, driving them into a downward spiral, and allowing these negative thoughts to feed on themselves. I have seen this attitude in students who have seemingly no hope of passing or succeeding, leading them to only one outcome, failure. The “Inner Defender” is the voice that allows students to blame others and anything else for their problems. This inner voice always finding an excuse for problems they encounter to make themselves feel better about their situation. Downing explains: “the Inner Defender judges others: What a boring teacher. My advisor screwed up my financial aid. My roommate made me late to class. No one knows what they’re doing around here [sic]” (30). This way of thinking never solves anything. It just allows the student to be satisfied with the outcome of failure. In their mind, it is not their fault so why should they feel bad? What is there to learn from? It was all out of their control.
The victim mentality that so many students have today is a destructive mindset. The constant blaming of others for their own shortcomings is a trap that so many students place themselves in, and have such a hard time escaping. It is a choice they make. Instead of choosing to learn from mistakes and find alternatives to their problems, they simply allow themselves to fail. They could take personal responsibility for their choices, owning them, and learning to make positive choices with beneficial outcomes, but they choose to blame others and take the easy way out learning nothing. Students choose to follow the wrong “inner voice” allowing themselves to be lead astray by their thoughts. They could have chosen to think positively and find creative alternatives with positive thinking, but again, they simply take the easy way out assuming they are victims, failing to take responsibility for their actions, and following the wrong “inner voice”.
(Work Cited
Downing, Skip. On Course. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2008. Print
COCC Students Struggle to get an Education
Some say “life is hard!” “So what, move on and get over it” you may say. This should be the goal, moving on with life and finding productive ways to get through issues in the most effective way possible. College is one of those hard points in life. For the majority of students college is important and funds are not endless, so moving through college as quickly as possible while getting a quality education should be the goal of most students. However, many students are not able to get through college as quickly as they possibly can. A declining economy has lead to a rise in enrollment that the school is not presently able to handle. The increase in enrollment has lead to longer waitlists decreasing the chances that a student has to get into a class and increasing the amount of time spent in school. There are also a percentage of students who get into a class and drop too late, affecting other students’ ability to fill the open seat. A lack of planning causes many students to drop classes late in the term potentially affecting their ability to learn real world work habits.
Why such a large rise in enrolment at COCC? My speculation is that due to the poor economy people are going to school for a variety of reasons. Many people are finding themselves out of a job, and unable to reenter the workforce because of a lack of jobs. This lack of jobs has created fierce competition for positions when jobs do open up. I believe some students have little education or have found that their particular field of study has suddenly been downsized or is obsolete. Sheila G. Miller who wrote an article titled “No signs of COCC influx letting up” for The Bulletin, quotes College Relations Director Ron Paradis saying: “Though we’ve not actually surveyed what fields people were in [prior to coming to COCC], I think it’s a fair conjecture to say that it’s the large percentage of individuals being previously tied up in construction who have been heavily impacted…” (Miller). So many people like those in the construction industry are coming back to get a GED or a degree to make themselves more marketable to employers, because most employers require you have a degree to even apply for the job. With so many people either out of work or in a job with drastically reduced hours, they are coming to school in large numbers. People now have the time, and the hopes of putting themselves in a better position to be employed in the future. The school does not presently have the facilities or faculty to keep up with demands from students. Miller opens her article by explaining that, “The flood of students into Central Oregon Community College over the past two years has overloaded nearly every aspect of the school, and the trend seems likely to continue for the foreseeable future.” Miller posted the graph to the right showing COCC’s growth from 2004-2009.
The large influx of students enrolling at COCC has caused a sharp rise in the number of students on wait lists. This magnifies the problem of students not being able to get into classes. Miller observes that, “During the fall 2008 term, 215 students started the quarter on a waiting list for every class they wanted to attend. … [By] fall, that number [had risen to] 401 students.” So there is obviously a desire from people to attend COCC, so much so, that many classes have wait lists reaching well into the double digits. For many students not getting into class is be a big deal, because some classes are only offered at specific times in the year, or are prerequisite classes that are needed to get into other classes. I, for instance, need to get into CIS 120. Not getting this class has affected the amount of time I will spend in college because I have had to put off all my other computer classes until I meet this prerequisite. This throws my timeline for classes off since there are certain classes that have to be taken in sequence. If I miss the first one, I have to wait an entire year to try to get into the class again. An article by The Associated Press directly mentions COCC explaining that, “Many of the school's worker retraining programs consist of classes that are supposed to be taken in sequence, so students who can't get slots could be stuck until next fall” (College Cutbacks). My goal, and many other students goal is to get in and out of school as quickly as possible because time is money. The more time I spend in school the more money I have to pay and the less money I end up making. Therefore, if there is an open seat in the class, students on the waitlist should fill it, but students who drop a class after the two week mark leave an open seat that cannot be filled.
Students who drop classes after the first two weeks cause problems that directly affect others. In the past, when students dropped a class after the two week mark it was not as detrimental to others because there were not as many students waiting to get into classes. Now, dropping classes after the two week mark becomes a seat that is left open for the rest of the term— a spot someone else on the wait list could have filled. It is important that students drop a class before the two week mark because this is the time frame that other students can get into the class and fill the opening reducing the adverse effects on other students. Students understand they need to wait their turn to get into a class and that is what the wait list is for. This is also why students are given early enrollment privileges. It gives deserving students a better chance at getting into a class. But when a student decides to take a course and drop it after the two week mark, it affects all the students on the wait list because one of them could have filled that spot. If I had been added to CIS120 through one of the openings created by a student who dropped the class, I would have been able to take the computer courses I needed the coming term, and, I would not have had to wait an entire year before the next sequence of classes start. This may have been a relatively minor problem for the school to deal with in the past and a slight setback in student’s educational goals. But now with these large numbers of enrollees, the college is far from able to keep up with the demands. This makes available seats in classrooms a very valuable thing to most students. Every open space in a class with waitlisted students should be taken advantage of to give everyone the best chance at being successful in college.
The students who drop classes after the first two weeks often lack good planning skills. They fail to take their current work schedule, extracurricular activities, and combined workload from other classes into account. Even worse many of these students do not take the advice of a counselor who warns them that the number of classes they are enrolling in will be too difficult. These students do not realize how much work is involved in successfully completing the courses they have chosen. All of these poor decisions will ultimately cause the student to drop classes later in the term and affect others because it is too late for someone else to take their spot. Karen Conklin the author of “Course Attrition: A 5-Year Perspective on Why Students Drop Classes” writes about the findings of a five year study that ended in1993.
The decision to drop a class after the second week affects a student’s college career and they run the risk of not learning real world work habits. It affects them monetarily because they do not get their tuition money back. More importantly the idea that a student can take a class and then drop it later on in the term with relatively little to no impact on them or their records, does not instill a real world understanding of what will be expected of them in the workplace. Students will go on to get jobs, at these jobs they will be assigned a project by their future boss and told to get the job done in a specific amount of time. If the employee fails to get that job done or comes to their boss the day before the project is due and complains about not having enough time, it being too hard, having personal issues, or not understanding they will get fired. The reason being, their boss is paying them to complete things properly and on time. The incomplete work would then affect other workers because they would have to pick up the slack so the company at large could meet its obligations. Had the employee come to their boss at the beginning of the project and explained they did not have enough time because of other demands at work, they did not understand completely, or any number of other issues; their boss would have been more likely to work with them in finding an effective way of solving the problem. This idea that a student can drop a course at the last minute with no repercussions is being taught to students. They do not have to be accountable for their decisions, or responsible for how their decisions affect others. These actions are completely unacceptable in the work place and should be unacceptable at school because of the immediate effect they have on other students and the long term effect that they have on themselves.
The economy’s decline has caused the rise in the number of students put on the wait list, affecting the number of students that are unable to get into classes. Even still, there are open seats left in classrooms after the first two weeks because students drop classes late, leaving a spot that cannot be filled. The school has no effective repercussions for students who drop classes after the two week mark. COCC needs to put into place a strict policy to limit those who do not take advantage of the class by dropping the class after the two week point, not showing up after the first two weeks, or failing the course do to lack of effort. These students should have the following restrictions put into place: a hold placed on early registration eligibility, instructor approval to reenroll in a late dropped class, and the late dropped classes should be put on student’s transcripts and monitored. There would need to be some sort of check and balance put into place where students could contend any punitive action brought against them. For instance, an appeal process to have the drop status removed from the transcript if the student can show a legitimate reason for dropping the class late. However, as long as a student maintains a late drop status that would be recorded at the end of the term, they should be the last people allowed to enroll. This policy positively affects both students who could not get into classes as well as students who would drop classes. Students who are waitlisted have a better chance of getting into a class because they would have the opportunity to fill the open seats at the beginning of the term. Students who drop a class late in the term learn the life skill that their decisions do have consequences and they cannot adversely affect others and expect nothing to come of it.
Works Cited
“College Cutbacks Make it Harder to Earn Degrees.” The Associated Press.MSNBC, 12 Oct. 2009, WEB. 23 Feb 2010.
Conklin, Karen A. “Course attrition: A 5-year perspective on why students drop classes.” Community College Journal of Research & Practice 21.8 (1997):753-760. Print.
Miller, Sheila G. “No Signs of COCC Influx Letting Up.” The Bulletin.The Bulletin, 28 Aug. 2009, Web. 10 Mar. 2010.
