Natalie Munroe (Image Via ABC)

Pennsylvania teacher Natalie Munroe called her student an “utter jerk,” others “out of control” and “rude, lazy, disengaged whiners.” Yet when administrators at her school suspended her for her public diatribes, which also insult school officials and other teachers, she defends her actions. “I don’t think I did anything wrong,” she said in an interview with ABC News.

“I was writing it not about anyone specific, they were caricatures of students that I’ve had over the years…it was meant tongue and cheek for myself and my friends, it was not for mass consumption…I’m sorry that it was taken out of context but I stand by what I said,” Munroe said.

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As a part of this year’s National Hazing Prevention Week taking place on September 20-24, 2010, Sigma Nu, the Interfraternity Council Member Fraternity, is spearheading a social media campaign. Over the course of 40 days, Sigma Nu will release via their Twitter channel a comprehensive list of arguments against the 40 most common heard excuses for sorority and fraternity hazing.

The project began on August 11, 2010 and since then a team of contributors have blogged, tweeted and Facebook posted a different excuse daily using the Twitter official hash tag #40Answers.

This is the first social media campaign to combat hazing in Greek Life and is slated to become a popular resource for Greeks against hazing to ensure a quality fraternity and sorority experience for organization members

Numerous organizations within Panhellenic, National-Panhellenic, Interfraternity and Diversified Greek Councils have committed to endorsing and supporting the campaign.

Here is the list of scheduled tweets:

•    August 11, 2010 Pledges must pay their dues to become a member.
•    August 12, 2010 Hazing teaches pledges to respect their elders.
•    August 13, 2010 Pledges must learn to appreciate the fraternity.
•    August 14, 2010 I don’t think _________ is hazing. Read the rest of this entry »

Dublin university student Shane Fitzgerald said it took him less than 15 minutes to “fabricate and place a poetic but phony quote” on Wikipedia, testing how our increasingly Internet-dependent media was “upholding accuracy and accountability in an age of instant news.”

Fitzgerald added an “obituary-friendly quote” to the Wikipedia page of Maurice Jarre only hours after the French composer’s death on March 28. It was then used by dozens of U.S. blogs and newspaper websites in Britain, Australia and India. “They used the fabricated material,” Fitzgerald said, “even though administrators at the free online encyclopedia twice caught the quote’s lack of attribution and removed it.” Read the rest of this entry »