December 29th, 2006
Trinidad and Tobago students post sex and violence to YouTube
To ban or not to ban those pesky cellphones at school. That's what Trinidad and Tobago schools are pondering after students began posting lewd and violent videos of students in the classrooms, reports Newsday.
Schools everywhere are grappling with the new issues that cellphones and other technology present at school. Trinidadian school officials found their school featured on a YouTube video which showed students in school uniforms having sexual intercourse in a classroom. It was titled "Road to Success" and submitted by an 18-year-old Trinidadian male calling himself "hoodrich233."
Shot with a camera phone, the video was viewed 483 times before it was pulled from YouTube for "terms of use violation." The photo of the couple remains on the site, and the damage to the school's reputation is done.
Another clip remains on YouTube, called "Hard Slap Pt 1" and "Hard Slap Pt 2" showing students hitting each other. This has the caused the Education minister to call on parents to be more watchful over what their children are up to.
"It is appalling to see secondary and tertiary education students using websites to display information and actions not in their own, or their school's best interest."
The vice-president of the National Parent Teachers' Association, Carlyle Green, said the Association believes there should be a total ban on cellphones in schools.
"We are still of the opinion that in almost every school there is a land line and parents can contact their children - and the same facility is available if teachers have to contact parents." Green said youths had impressionable minds, and no one knew what "they in turn may want to do."
