A Civility Gap
Jules Crittenden misses one. He blogged about the Virginia High School student, Devraj “Dave” S. Kori, who called a school official’s home to ask why school hadn’t been cancelled due to snow. (reported in the Washington Post).
The school official’s wife called him back and left a message on his cell phone that chastised him for calling their home about school business.
He decided to post their phone number and the audio message on the internet, and invite people to tell the administrator what people thought.
His “defense:”
People in my generation view privacy differently. We are the cellphone generation. We are used to being reached at all times, he said.
Kori explained his perspective in an e-mail yesterday to Fairfax County schools spokesman Paul Regnier. Regnier said, also in an e-mail, that Koris decision to place the phone call to the Tistadts home was more likely the result of a civility gap.
Mr. Kori apparently fails to understand the difference between the public official in their public capacity and that person’s home and family. For a “3.977 GPA” student, that’s a pretty glaring error.
Posting that number, the phone message and a challenge to others to tell the administrator what people think was provoking others to harass these people.
If Mr. Kori is so strong on letting public officials hear what people think, why didn’t he, as a “spokesman” and “organizer” for this activity, post his own home and cell phone number? I’m sure his parents want to hear about what he’s doing in the public square - the internet - as much as anyone.
Part of this “difference” in the generations is the sense of entitlement:
He said that he tried unsuccessfully to contact Dean Tistadt at work and that he thought he had a basic right to petition a public official for more information about a decision that affected him and his classmates.
And posting to the internet is just:
He said he was exercising freedom of speech in posting a Facebook page.
The adminstrator and his wife should post his cell number on the internet and invite others to either join Mr. Kori or critique his actions.
But then, the administrator and his wife have a sense of privacy - not just their own, but others as well.
