cruel video pranks

Malicious Online Videos Hurting Teachers

By ALEX BRAUN

LONDON (AP) - The teacher stumbling at the front of the classroom in his white briefs, pants pulled down to his ankles by a student, probably wishes he were somewhere else. That place is probably not YouTube.

Captured on video, the scene has been replayed thousands of times and posted by several users on the Internet's most popular video-sharing site. It is not clear where the video was shot, but a quick search on YouTube will turn up hundreds like it.

Such clips hurt teachers, British Education Secretary Alan Johnson said.

"The online harassment of teachers is causing some to consider leaving the profession because of the defamation and humiliation they are forced to suffer," Johnson said at a national teachers' conference Tuesday.

The secretary was speaking about new government guidelines for confiscating mobile phones and other devices that are used to record malicious videos in the classroom. However, Web sites that host student-made videos must also act, he said.

"These are big companies we are talking about," Johnson said. "They have a social responsibility and moral obligation to act."...

The video of the teacher in his briefs was still available Wednesday, as were clips of a teacher walking through cellophane tape covering a classroom door and a student using ketchup to feign a head injury in class.

So...WHAT'S THE POINT?

It breaks my heart when I think about what a cruel culture we are becoming in Western Society. American Idol humiliating pitiful singers, Howard Stern getting the biggest radio show deal in history, Don Imus slandering female basketball players.

As followers of Christ, I believe we are called to respect the dignity of human beings. There is a line that we have to be careful not to cross. It is one thing to prank, tease and joke around. It is another thing to humiliate and degrade.

The Golden Rule, "Treat others as you want to be treated" may not be a quote from the Bible (as many mistakenly believe), but it is definitely consistent with Scripture.

As I began to grow in my relationship with Christ and God began to reveal areas of my character and habits that needed to be changed...this is one of the first things that God's Spirit brought under the spotlight. As a child, I took great pleasure in humiliating someone I didn't like in order to get a laugh. God started to check my spirit when those tendencies would slip back to the surface.

I pray that as Christians we can be a positive light in a negative world.