I am a First Amendment absolutist and I would like to read, amid the discussion of how the Delete key should be wielded, some more nuanced discusssion than I have seen on just where anyone believes the line should be drawn in censoring the Web, blogs or any other speech.
Certainly the words and images directed at Kathy are hateful and abhorrent. If a law has been broken, the accused should be prosecuted. Let's do keep in mind, however, that that person is the one who created and posted the words and images.
Beyond that, I don't see what can or should be done publicly. In case anyone hasn't noticed, anonymous abusers are not the sort of people who "own their words." There are bad people in the world. They do bad things. Bad things happen to good people.
And it multiplies the violation when good people respond in kind.
What Is Officially Essential
Here's part of the online school checklist for pandemic influenza (section two, the only real part - the part about something besides interfacing with other government entities)
Continuity of Student Learning and Core Operations:
Tasks
* Develop scenarios describing the potential impact of a pandemic on student learning (e.g., student and staff absences), school closings, and extracurricular activities based on having various levels of illness among students and staff.
* Develop alternative procedures to assure continuity of instruction (e.g., web-based distance instruction, telephone trees, mailed lessons and assignments, instruction via local radio or television stations) in the event of district school closures.
* Develop a continuity of operations plan for essential central office functions including payroll and ongoing communication with students and parents.
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Yeah, yeah.
Or just close. Send the kids and staff home. Stop the payroll. Hush. Go about your own lives and tend to your own family's learning and well-being and help your own neighbors, for the indefinite future.