Student Banned From Campus Over Facebook Comments

kungfugleek writes: A University of Minnesota student has been banned from the Twin Cities campus after three of her instructors felt threatened by some of her Facebook postings. Amanda Tatro was patted down and questioned by campus police when she got to class Monday. The 29-year-old mortuary science student had posted comments on her Facebook page after breaking up with her boyfriend. She told her Facebook friends she wanted to stab a "certain someone in the throat" with an embalming instrument. Tatro said she was "looking forward to Monday's embalming therapy." When the instructors learned of the postings, they contacted police. Tatro told investigators she was just venting because she was upset over the breakup. Tatro tells the Star Tribune she has now set her Facebook profile to private.

That's pretty much the whole article (apologies for the plagiarism). I wonder how long it will be before people realize that nothing online, especially on FB, is private.

Not necessarily a privacy issue.

[stagg]

I don't agree that this is a privacy issue. Regardless of what forum such comments are made in the speaker would not necessarily expect to be prosecuted for them. A rational individual should be able to discern between a joke in bad taste and a genuine threat, and react accordingly. It's a matter of cultural paranoia and disproportionate responses as much as privacy.