Marijuana.com

PotShot

Campus police using Facebook to curb illegal behavior
Campus News Editor | Spectrum.Buffalo.edu | APRIL 3rd, 2006

Taking a cue from other colleges already clamping down on the Internet, UB officials have begun utilizing popular social Web sites like MySpace and Facebook to catch and discipline students illegally drinking, smoking and using drugs.

Students have turned to these Web sites to chronicle their lives and socialize with friends, but now they are learning, often the hard way, that their words and pictures are reaching beyond the peers for whom they were intended.

"We don't need Facebook to bust these kids, but it certainly makes it easier," said John Grela, UB director of Public Safety. "You look at some of this stuff and really have to wonder what these kids were thinking."

It's no secret to officials that students post pictures of themselves holding cans and bottles of beer and liquor, even though listed birthdays are often under the age of legal consumption. Some appear to smoke marijuana, and others go so far as to be handling illegal weapons.

"It's not really our goal to be Big Brother looking over the shoulder of every student who is on MySpace," said Elizabeth Lidano, director of Judicial Affairs, "but these kids might as well just walk down to my office and light up in front of me. I don't think we've ever busted so many in one week."

Neither UB nor other SUNY schools have developed a policy for dealing with pictures of illegal activity posted on these Web sites, but Lidano said Judicial Affairs is currently working towards solidifying such guidelines. Until then, though, officials aren't waiting to crack down on students who are publicizing their illegal activities.

"We actually didn't really consider it until UB Athletics started to monitor their athletes," Lidano said. "We thought, why couldn't we use the same system to make sure students are upholding the Code of Conduct?"

Lidano said Judicial Affairs aligned itself with both University Residence Halls & Apartments and University Police at the beginning of the semester to launch a comprehensive crackdown, teaming up to tackle the plethora of felonious photos and beginning a campus-wide effort.

Using these photographs to incriminate students in illicit activities is decidedly easy, because many students' profiles list their date of birth, and for those that don't, officials can match names with university records. If a student under the age of 21 is pictured even holding what appears to be an alcoholic beverage, they will be summoned to appear before the Student-wide Judiciary, according to Lidano.

"What really makes our job easy is this whole 'tagging' thing," Lidano said. "For almost every picture on Facebook, each person's name is listed and it even links to their profile. It's like I said before, these kids might as well write up their own SWJ summons at that point."

The crackdown has thus far caught 485 students involved in underage drinking, 421 students involved in smoking marijuana, 1,019 students involved in harder drugs (cocaine, hallucinogens, heroin), and just last month, the initiative even busted a prostitution ring running out of the Ellicott Complex dormitories.

"I can't believe they were doing that right under our noses," said Joseph Krakowiak, director of URH&A. "I mean, a prostitution ring? Maybe I'm naïve, but I always chalked those noises up to youthful exuberance."

The crackdown on Facebook continues to operate at full-speed, and according to Grela, the initiative has no plans to slow down in the near future.

"The fact of the matter, though, is that the wheels have begun to turn and students are paying the price for posting these pictures," Grela said. "If you don't want to get busted, you need to take those pictures down now. And even then, we've probably already seen them

__________________
Posting Guidelines

Carl Sagan Goodness Richard Dawkins Goodness

 

reggie_the_dog

well, lets see here, you are 19, a university student, and there is a picture of you with alcohol in your hand, JUST TELL THEM YOU WERE IN CANADA.


You have a hard time because of a picture of you with cannabis or other drugs, JUST SAY YOU WERE IN A DIFFERENT STATE, OR JUST SAY YOU WERE OFF CAMPUS


are these folks taking pictures of illegal activities WITH ENOUGH BACKGROUND IMAGES TO LET OFFICIALS KNOW THEY ARE ON CAMPUS WHEN THEY DO THEM???

If so, the students are quite stupid, if not the university does not have much or a case.

jtaylor

I've been wondering the same things. There are all kinds of pictures on facebook for my local university. Many of them probably considered illegal by the school. But I have wondered if people can get in trouble for certain pictures. I might have to go down to our campus police and talk to an officer about it.

Any of the officers aboard care to shed some light on the legalities of the pictures online?

jon

Ilove#

If I went to a school where they tried to pull this bullshit, I would walk around campus with a digital camera and an empty beer can and/or a hand rolled cigarette (to look like a joint of course) and snap pictures of anyone willing to send a big fuck you to these asshats.

What are they going to do, discipline the whole student population?

Sec

I agree. It is rather juvenile to drink while underage (after all; underage = juvenile). It is totally stupid (Definition: Unintelligent, Silly)to feel the need to brag about each and every time you took a toke or drink. It is just asinine (Definition: Rediculous, like an ass) to publish or advertize your party habits.

20, 30, 40 years from now, are they going to want those pictures floating around? Do they not care if their parents, (kids, grandparents, constituents, employers, clients, colleagues, etc., etc.) sees the proof of their follies?

We all do or have done things we may not be proud of. I just wouldn't want the mistakes made while I was in my late teens/early twenties coming back to bite me now.

If just one of these kids had overdosed on the drugs, suffered from severe alcohol poisoning, or 1 girl been beaten (or worse) by an unsatisfied John, who would have the family blamed and probably sued? You cannot fault the school for taking reasonable and prudent care in eliminating illegal activity on their property. If the students are going to make it easy to get caught, why not?

Definitions from "Encarta Dictionary", English; North America

__________________
Guidelines.
Search
http://www.marijuana.com/drug-test/index

 

reggie_the_dog

The crackdown has thus far caught 485 students involved in underage drinking, 421 students involved in smoking marijuana, 1,019 students involved in harder drugs (cocaine, hallucinogens, heroin), and just last month, the initiative even busted a prostitution ring running out of the Ellicott Complex dormitories.


there is a bigger issue here I hadnt thought of right away.

Why do university students need to prostitute themselves in the USA?

Is tuition and room and board that expensive over there??

Oh wait, I went to school over there, it is quite expensive

reggie_the_dog

About not wanting pictures of oneself toking etc.

Some of us do not have to hide cannabis use from our parents, don't give a darn if we miss out on some job because of an old photo, and are going to tell our children that we smoke cannabis, so we are not concerned about such photos.

I am 27 now and last year my wife took a picture of me doing my best James Dean impersanation with a joint hanging out of my mouth (I do not smoke tobacco) in front of the petrified tree in Yellowstone National Park. I showed that picture to my inlaws, parents, friends etc.

So for folks like me, we need only be careful of 2 things

1. what is in the background of digital photos (you can often see a lot by zooming in, more than you would expect sometimes) so when you take photos of illegal activity it is best to have little in the background that gives away your exact location.

2. If you do show something that shows your exact location (such as a National Parks service sign in Yellowstone National Park) be sure that you do not take a picture of buds, (my joint was already rolled before I took the photo, so no one can ever prove that it was a cannabis cigarette)

Buzzby

How can you tell from a picture:

1) if it's a joint or a hand-rolled cigarette? If it is a joint how can you tell if the person in the picture is actually smoking it?

2) if it's a full or empty container of an alcoholic beverage; if the student is actually drinking it?

3) if the white powder is cocaine or flour?

4) if the pills are LSD or aspirin?

I really don't see how the school can prosecute students on such flimsy evidence.

__________________

Sec

You have only lived 1/3 your life. You don't know what the future holds. Also, I believe you have said you live in France & the US, No fear of US laws in France.
If the School Board where you teach high school saw the photo, would they have at the very least, "questions" for you?

I agree if that was the ONLY evidence. There is nothing indicating the photos are the only evidence. The photos probably provided only probable cause for a warrent. Also, if the students are stupid enough to advertize their extra-curricular activities, they would probably be stupid enough to confess when confronted with the "evidence".

The Mighty Quin

Logic and reason don't really apply to schools when it comes to discipline. If you read the fine print on the documents that they make you sign at the beginning of the term, they can punish anybody for just about anything with very little else other than hearsay and conjecture. That's just the nature of what we kids deal with. Being 18 myself, I feel it incumbent to say that most everyone I know, or at least a large majority thereof, is involved in Facebook or Myspace, and I think it is ridiculous. The band in which I play even has a myspace, of which I was not made aware until recently. These Facebooks and Myspaces are ridiculous. They are exactly what this article makes them out to be - nothing other than chronicles of what a person has been drinking, what they have been smoking and who they've 'hooked up with' (and as much as I hate that term, my peers actually use it).

Some would say that kids are stupid; I would say that 97% of kids are just plain ignorant. Most kids my age do not understand the concept of "moderation." Most kids my age just don't care about their future or what consequences their actions have. I shall admit I have consciously made some poor judgment calls, but I was aware beforehand and at the time that there were serious consequences for my actions, but I do not fly off the handle and freakout and "fuck the man" and all that jazz when things don't go my way. Fortunatly I've stayed on the abiding side of both the law and my parents for some months now.

I guess I'm starting to ramble, but for those who aren't quite teenagers or college age anymore, there is indeed pressure on kids to "be cool" and be sociable, even so much so as to throw caution out the proverbial window. Some kids don't cave in to the pressure, some don't notice it, and some don't care.

It is unfortunate that I have to make the distinction, but there is a noticable disparity among the two primary population groups (at least, this is true at my school). There are the, for lack of a better descriptor, "cool kids", by which i don't mean cool necessarily, but it would be a term that people could understand. These are the kids who are gossipy and bitchy and the one's you hear about in the hall getting drunk and blah blah blah and its always the same group of people. These are the stupid ones who go and post their stupid ass pictures on Facebook and Myspace. These are the one's who this article talks about. Then there are the kids that aren't a part of that world, like myself. I have other interests than partying and getting wasted. My familial situation pretty much prevents that, but its more out of resent for the people who do partake of that lifestyle that I tend to avoid it. And I believe this is true in any situation. There are stupid kids who post pictures of themselves doing stupid things on stupid websites for other stupid people to see, and then the cops see it and they get busted and they can't figure out why because they are stupid. And then there are the other kids who nobody ever hears about, about whom no articles are ever written; because they aren't stupid superficial egotists whose only concern is wearing collared shirts and baseball caps.

Well I realize that is way too much for anybody to want to read. Sorry for the rant. I just hate stupid kids soooo much.

__________________
I'm sick of following my dreams. I'm just gonna ask where there going and hook up with 'em later.

R.I.P. Mitch Hedberg 2/24/68 - 3/29/05
You will be missed.

www.mitchhedberg.net
www.hedburgh.com