In Loco Parentis

Jack Howard

According to Joseph Storch the "In loco parentis," has had a colorful past. Originally, in loco parentis meant that a university had the ability to act as the parents of students. The institution was responsible for disciplining the students as well as liability for protecting them. Over the years, the power of in loco parentis has gone back and forward. The newest issue is of protection of the students online. In his article, Storch believes that it is an impossibility for a college to be responsible for protecting students from slander on the internet. He believes that colleges should focus their time and energy on educating their students about the internet, instead of blocking them from harmful sites. While this is a nice idea, restricting access to the websites in question would still be a viable solution.

Restricting a potentially slanderous website like "juciy campus" is a good step towards curving the problem. Storch says that banning the site would jump the interest in the site. While this may be true, it would also greatly limit access to the website. High schools have firewalls to limit students internet activity, why should a college be any different? Storch says there are ways to get around a college wide ban on a website, there were also ways to get around a high school firewall. But by limiting access as much as possible, you can make it harded and less desirable to tey and access said sites. I agree that banning the website wouldn't eliminate any students from accessing it, but as "in loco parentis" dictates, it would be a good parental strategy towards protecting the student. Just because it wouldn't fix the problem completely, doesn't mean it is a waste of time.