At Ryerson University, academic administrators are handing out 147 academic charges for a study group hosted on Facebook.

The university is charging freshman Chris Avenir, a computer engineering student, with one count of academic misconduct for starting and running the group, and an additional 146 counts for each student in the group. Chris also has to appear before a committee on the possibility of being expelled, reports The Star.

The study group was used for students to share tips to help solve the chemistry problems worth 10 percent of their grade. Chris received a B in the class last fall, but after the professor found the Facebook group, changed his grade to an F.

Kim Neale, 26, the student union’s advocacy coordinator, says students are now scared to discuss anything related to their classes on Facebook:

“All these students are scared s—less now about using Facebook to talk about schoolwork, when actually it’s no different than any study group working together on homework in a library.”

The group was created solely to allow students to provide tips and guidance on problems, not for cheating and the sharing of answers. Students at Ryerson argue that if this study group is not allowed, then any form of study group can be cause for misconduct and tutoring must also be a form of academic dishonesty.

“Yet students argue Facebook groups are simply the new study hall for the wired generation.”

Student study groups have been part of college forever. Typically a small group of students would get together to share insights and provide help to others who may not be grasping a topic as fast. Now that the internet allows students to do this with more students at once, and faster, it is the new study group, and does not call for academic charges, suspensions or anything similar.

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Two students at Clark High School in Texas are being charged with accusations over the creation of a false MySpace page for the schools assistant principal. Reported by MySA.com, the students created a page that was filled with lewd, defamatory and obscene comments, pictures and graphics.

Anna Draker, the assistant principal, is suing both students, and their parents for:

“defamation, libel, negligence and negligent supervision over a page on the popular Web site MySpace.com.”

The MySpace students also falsely posted her sexual orientation as a “lesbian” and were filled with comments sexual comments by others pertaining to the graphics and information on the page.

The school reported they have little control over cases of this form, as they can be done away from school. In the law suit she is suing for money for damages of emotional distress and more, but the attorney stated the case is more about teaching a lesson.

MySpace did remove the page immediately after being contacted by Draker. Steve Jones, author of “CyberSociety” who has written extensively on Internet use had this to say about the case:

“This is the most serious, most concerted effort that I’ve seen a teacher or a school administrator undertake involving a posting on MySpace. This is pretty remarkable,” he said. “I think a lot of people will be watching this.”

In cases like this in the past, most students are usually suspended or possibly expelled.

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