The new media and mixed messages

My administration must have recently heard from someone about my cheer coach's blog because he suggested that I review or revise some posts that I had on it that were pretty comment-heavy. (I'm sure I was whining about how difficult it has been to actually put together a squad of 6 cheerleaders). This certainly was a ding to my ego- any time you do something creative or expressive and someone somewhere doesn't like even just the smallest part of it, creative and expressive people tend to take it personally. But we all need to consider what we say to and about each other, that's only kind. Besides, there are always more than one side to any story. One parent was frustrated with me for writing that they wouldn't let their child cheer because it wasn't a real sport. Well, that's what the child told me. The parent told me that they had trust issues with the student that could be a problem for times after practices or before and after games. I apologized to them and told them that I guess I tend to be too optimistic when I assess a kids' charater. I take the explanations they give me at face value and really need to consider the parent/guardian's point of view. 13-17 year olds have been known to violate trust.

Now I could get in a huffy about my First amendment rights, but that particular blog could be thought of as collaborative- There are pictures of kids in school uniforms at school functions and I'm writing about my experience as a coach (a school employee) so I completely agreed with my principal's concerns. This is what I wrote to him:

• I always want to try to be positive- that's what cheer is supposed to do

• I always want to promote positive interactions with students. parents and community

• I'll go back and try to re-examine some of my previous posts, I received one comment on the blog from a parent in the past 4 years and I responded to them with explanation and apology- kept it positive

• I'll try to be more consioussensitive to be positive in the future and try not to just write flow-of-consiousness

• however, I guess I'll go ahead and remove any links to it from the school website anyway- just to be on the safe side. I already go out of my way to only use first names and to try to be as objective and sensitive as possible, but there's no way to be 1000% certain that you won't press somebody's button sometime and I'd just assume not risk it.

• FYI, I've always had the following disclamer on that blog-
"This is not an official BVCS site. The views expressed here and the links provided here are not necessarily those of the school, it's administrators or board. This site is the sole responsibility of Coach."

• Thanks for the head's-up about it. What a time we live in, technology allows you to be your own publisher, but you can't say much of anything without somebody getting their nose out of joint. Pretty ironic that I've been teaching Newspaper class about libel, slander, Tinker, and Hazelwood, prior-restraint, editorial function as opposed to censorship etc. etc.

Consider it taken care of.

And I will. I'm addicted to blogging. I'd rather pair it back and make it more sanitized than possibly face having to give it up. Sort of like coffee. I knew I had to back off the hard stuff for my blood-pressure, my nerves and my kidneys. So thank God for decaf. With rights come responsibility. With priviledges must come self-restraint.