Pat Brown (
@PatBroski), a student from upstate New York recently came up with the hashtag #shitCNSshouldcut inviting social media users to talk about the ineffective budget for the school district that involved the rejection of a budget plan worth $144.7 million on May 28, 2013.
To be passed, the budget needed 60 percent of the votes but failed to reach the cut. According to Brown, many students at Cicero-North Syracuse High School wished for the budget to be approved since it would help maintain their extra-curricular and athletic activities, as well as keep good teachers from being laid off.
Brown shared that he initially made the hashtag as a joke.
The hashtag
#shitCNSshouldcut trended well among students, who shared funny and ridiculous tweets on things that should be eliminated from the school system. Many silly ideas were posted like taking out the lights, holding outdoor classes to save electricity, cheerleading, forming an anime club and virtually anything else imaginable.
Brown was subsequently suspended for three days for allegedly disturbing classes by using his cellular phone and posting on Twitter that the executive principal of Cicero-North Syracuse should be axed for being incompetent. His tweet was considered a threat by school administrators, prompting them to discipline him accordingly.
The hashtag
#FreePatBrown immediately followed after the incident, gaining over 400 Twitter followers in 24 hours. Emails and posts from people in Brown?s area, and even from New York, Minneapolis and New Jersey, were shared to show their support for him.
Brown said that he felt good knowing that his hashtag reached a lot of people and agencies -- even CNN. He added that he has always been a good student, never getting into trouble and always helping out as a community volunteer and that the cellular phone incident was unexpected since he used his phone in the same class under the same teacher times before and never got called for it.
Brown?s friend, Jamie Roberts, was also suspended for five days after tweeting that a teacher must be eliminated while using the same hashtag.
Dr. Kim Dyce Faucette, Superintendent of the North Syracuse Central School District, said that there is a student code of conduct that sets limits on student behavior and actions.
The suspension is one way for the school to discipline students when the code of conduct is not obeyed properly. Faucette said that she cannot say anything more about disciplinary approaches regarding certain students.
A revote on the 2013-2014 school budget is due on June 18, 2013.
Brown was subsequently suspended for three days for allegedly disturbing classes by using his cellular phone and posting on Twitter that the executive principal of Cicero-North Syracuse should be axed for being incompetent. His tweet was considered a threat by school administrators, prompting them to discipline him accordingly.
The hashtag #FreePatBrown immediately followed after the incident, gaining over 400 Twitter followers in 24 hours. Emails and posts from people in Brown?s area, and even from New York, Minneapolis and New Jersey, were shared to show their support for him.
Brown said that he felt good knowing that his hashtag reached a lot of people and agencies -- even CNN. He added that he has always been a good student, never getting into trouble and always helping out as a community volunteer and that the cellular phone incident was unexpected since he used his phone in the same class under the same teacher times before and never got called for it.
Brown?s friend, Jamie Roberts, was also suspended for five days after tweeting that a teacher must be eliminated while using the same hashtag.
Dr. Kim Dyce Faucette, Superintendent of the North Syracuse Central School District, said that there is a student code of conduct that sets limits on student behavior and actions.
The suspension is one way for the school to discipline students when the code of conduct is not obeyed properly. Faucette said that she cannot say anything more about disciplinary approaches regarding certain students.
A revote on the 2013-2014 school budget is due on June 18, 2013.
