On October 9th, a student studying in Vietnam left a comment on Shanghai American School’s Facebook page that referenced adding SAS to the list of schools that had experienced mass shootings. The comment was the result of an exchange between that student and a current SAS high-schooler, the latter having first posted a comment that expressed discontent with the school’s new track.
According to Mr. Muldoon, the manager of the SAS Facebook page alerted him of the comment in concern of campus safety. Several students also expressed their discomfort toward the message to their counsellors. The Facebook exchange has since been removed by the high school administration.
Both Ms. Kate McKenna and Mr. Muldoon then acted according to the school’s protocol, which states that any time there is threat to student safety, the school administration must alert the security department. After their discovery that the student who commented on school shootings resides in Vietnam, it became clear that there was no real threat, according to Mr. Muldoon.
Mr. Muldoon and Ms. McKenna also met with the SAS student and their parents to discuss the student’s behavior. Mr. Muldoon said that he has not yet been able to get in touch with the school in Vietnam in order to negotiate potential consequences their student would face over the comment about school shootings.
Mr. Muldoon then alerted the SAS Puxi high school community over the incident via a Schoology update. Attached to the post was a link to an NBC News article by the National Mental Health Association on ways parents can approach discussions about school violence with their children, to which Mr. Muldoon added: “It is critical for students to experience normalcy at school following threats to safety….The article was written in response to news of school shootings in the United States, but the advice is very applicable”.
School-shootings, although frequent in the United States, are rare occurrences in China. Although not written on the Schoology update, Mr. Muldoon said that he tried to find a resource that would be more applicable to an international school, but there was “…..not a really good one [he] could find”.
“The timeliness of my communication was really important, so in the end I found an article that was more applicable to U.S. schools,” he said. “But the advice, in terms of how to talk to kids in terms of safety that was productive, I thought was more applicable to include.”
Some students believe that the school’s interference was unnecessary in the first place. “It was clearly a joke. A 15-year-old from Vietnam made a joke about school shootings. Sending a mass email pretending the entire school was under threat is an overreaction,” said a high school senior who would not like to be named.
Mr. Muldoon responds to these comments with his belief that these jokes are inappropriate for a school environment. “Whether it is about safety, racism, or any number of really serious topics, in my mind, they’re really not appropriate for humor,” he said. “On a personal level, I actually find it quite disgusting. On a professional level….I have to find a right balance between my personal views and my responsibility to keep the campus safe. So my response yesterday was all about student safety, and making sure the people knew that they were safe.”
Some students, like high school senior Tim Tan, believe that although the school was right to “….act according to school protocol and make sure students knew they were safe”, deleting the comments from the school's Facebook page was a violation of free speech.
“The SAS student has every right to say what [the student] said about the track. The school shouldn’t delete it from their page just because it’s bad for its image, when our bill of rights clearly states that students have the freedom of speech,” Tan said.
Mr. Muldoon said that “he is an enormous proponent of free speech as a basic human principal”, but he said he believes that people are still responsible for what they say. “If by saying what I want and exercising that privilege I infringe upon the rights of other people, there’s a problem,” he said.
“In the context of a school it’s a little more complicated. What students say online have the ability to affect other students at school,” he added. “So I will advocate for the school to intervene in situations of social media or other speech when students are negatively affected at school.”
A similar high-profile incident regarding students’ use of language on social media occurred in August—during grade-level student council elections. 9th-grade elections were postponed after a freshman used racial and hateful language towards candidates in multiple WeChat posts. Mr. Muldoon alerted the high school community of the event soon after it happened, also through a Schoology update.
The freshman students then created a community pledge during an exploratory session. According to Mr. Muldoon, the students were split into twelve groups, and each group created a T-chart that included the kinds of speech and interactions with people that made them feel good about being at school and the those that had the opposite effect. They then brainstormed school rules everyone can commit to that encourages the good and discourages the bad. The T-charts were then condensed into the community pledge, which stands outside of the high school office and was sent out to parents.
Although Mr. Muldoon believes that this was an effective program that “clearly sets the precedent” he says that he does not know how it can involve the entire high school community. “It would be harder but more meaningful for 650 students to engage in this activity,” he said, “On the list of things I want to do with Ms. Doleman and Ms. McKenna is a programming about this during our Monday (exploratory) time that we have with students. But…I don’t have something prepped and ready to go in this moment.”
Angela Ma
According to Mr. Muldoon, the manager of the SAS Facebook page alerted him of the comment in concern of campus safety. Several students also expressed their discomfort toward the message to their counsellors. The Facebook exchange has since been removed by the high school administration.
Both Ms. Kate McKenna and Mr. Muldoon then acted according to the school’s protocol, which states that any time there is threat to student safety, the school administration must alert the security department. After their discovery that the student who commented on school shootings resides in Vietnam, it became clear that there was no real threat, according to Mr. Muldoon.
Mr. Muldoon and Ms. McKenna also met with the SAS student and their parents to discuss the student’s behavior. Mr. Muldoon said that he has not yet been able to get in touch with the school in Vietnam in order to negotiate potential consequences their student would face over the comment about school shootings.
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| The Facebook post from which the comment about school shootings originated. The exchange has since been deleted. |
Mr. Muldoon then alerted the SAS Puxi high school community over the incident via a Schoology update. Attached to the post was a link to an NBC News article by the National Mental Health Association on ways parents can approach discussions about school violence with their children, to which Mr. Muldoon added: “It is critical for students to experience normalcy at school following threats to safety….The article was written in response to news of school shootings in the United States, but the advice is very applicable”.
School-shootings, although frequent in the United States, are rare occurrences in China. Although not written on the Schoology update, Mr. Muldoon said that he tried to find a resource that would be more applicable to an international school, but there was “…..not a really good one [he] could find”.
“The timeliness of my communication was really important, so in the end I found an article that was more applicable to U.S. schools,” he said. “But the advice, in terms of how to talk to kids in terms of safety that was productive, I thought was more applicable to include.”
Some students believe that the school’s interference was unnecessary in the first place. “It was clearly a joke. A 15-year-old from Vietnam made a joke about school shootings. Sending a mass email pretending the entire school was under threat is an overreaction,” said a high school senior who would not like to be named.
Mr. Muldoon responds to these comments with his belief that these jokes are inappropriate for a school environment. “Whether it is about safety, racism, or any number of really serious topics, in my mind, they’re really not appropriate for humor,” he said. “On a personal level, I actually find it quite disgusting. On a professional level….I have to find a right balance between my personal views and my responsibility to keep the campus safe. So my response yesterday was all about student safety, and making sure the people knew that they were safe.”
Some students, like high school senior Tim Tan, believe that although the school was right to “….act according to school protocol and make sure students knew they were safe”, deleting the comments from the school's Facebook page was a violation of free speech.
“The SAS student has every right to say what [the student] said about the track. The school shouldn’t delete it from their page just because it’s bad for its image, when our bill of rights clearly states that students have the freedom of speech,” Tan said.
Mr. Muldoon said that “he is an enormous proponent of free speech as a basic human principal”, but he said he believes that people are still responsible for what they say. “If by saying what I want and exercising that privilege I infringe upon the rights of other people, there’s a problem,” he said.
“In the context of a school it’s a little more complicated. What students say online have the ability to affect other students at school,” he added. “So I will advocate for the school to intervene in situations of social media or other speech when students are negatively affected at school.”
A similar high-profile incident regarding students’ use of language on social media occurred in August—during grade-level student council elections. 9th-grade elections were postponed after a freshman used racial and hateful language towards candidates in multiple WeChat posts. Mr. Muldoon alerted the high school community of the event soon after it happened, also through a Schoology update.
The freshman students then created a community pledge during an exploratory session. According to Mr. Muldoon, the students were split into twelve groups, and each group created a T-chart that included the kinds of speech and interactions with people that made them feel good about being at school and the those that had the opposite effect. They then brainstormed school rules everyone can commit to that encourages the good and discourages the bad. The T-charts were then condensed into the community pledge, which stands outside of the high school office and was sent out to parents.
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| The 9th-grade community pledge that stands outside the high school office, courtesy of Angela Ma |
Although Mr. Muldoon believes that this was an effective program that “clearly sets the precedent” he says that he does not know how it can involve the entire high school community. “It would be harder but more meaningful for 650 students to engage in this activity,” he said, “On the list of things I want to do with Ms. Doleman and Ms. McKenna is a programming about this during our Monday (exploratory) time that we have with students. But…I don’t have something prepped and ready to go in this moment.”
Angela Ma
