An Anonymous School Page and the Harm Principle
The student council of a senior secondary school in Ludhiana starts an anonymous Instagram page, 'PSEB Confessions', in September. Within five weeks it has 412 followers. Most posts are harmless, but three are not: one mocks a mathematics teacher's accent and calls her 'unfit to teach'; one publishes the date and reason for a Class XI student's medical leave, naming her class; one alleges, without evidence, that a teacher takes bribes for practical marks. The principal wants the three council office-bearers expelled and a police complaint filed. The council president replies that Article 19(1)(a) protects speech, that the page is a forum for students who fear speaking in class, and that the office-bearers did not write the posts. The principal asks the Philosophy teacher for a written opinion before the management meeting on Monday.
1. Apply Mill's harm principle. Classify the three posts and decide which fall within the area society may regulate.
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Mill's principle is that interference is justified only to prevent harm to others; conduct that concerns only the agent is outside society's authority. Post 1 - mocking a teacher's accent and calling her unfit - is other-regarding: it attacks an identifiable person's reputation and dignity, and Mill's own exceptions for offence against decency are relevant. Post 2 - publishing a student's medical leave and naming her class - is clearly other-regarding harm: it discloses private information and exposes a minor to stigma. Post 3 - an unevidenced bribery allegation against a teacher - is defamatory and can damage a livelihood.
None is a self-regarding expression of opinion; the opinions could be expressed without naming or defaming. Mill would protect the page's general function as a forum, and would protect criticism of institutions, but not these three posts. So the harm principle permits, and arguably requires, intervention - while the intervention must be the least restrictive that stops the harm.
2. The council president says the office-bearers did not write the posts. Does anonymity remove their responsibility?
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Anonymity changes the allocation of responsibility, not its existence. Mill's harm principle addresses the harm, not only the author, so the moderators who run and curate the page have duties of care.
The president's claim would be stronger if the page were unmoderated and the posts were removed on notice. The facts matter: if office-bearers approved posts, wrote captions, or refused a teacher's request to delete, they are participants; if they were negligent administrators, they are still responsible for negligence. Anonymity also removes the ordinary remedy - the person harmed cannot confront or sue the author - which makes the moderator's role more, not less, responsible.
A fair judgment distinguishes the author, responsible for the words, from the moderator, responsible for the forum, and imposes different burdens on each. Blanket immunity for anonymous pages would let a school's most damaging speech proceed with no one accountable.
3. Is expulsion plus a police complaint proportionate? Propose a policy the school could defend.
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Proportionality asks whether expulsion and a police complaint are the least restrictive effective response. Expelling three students for posts they may not have written is a severe, irreversible sanction, and it punishes status rather than conduct; a police complaint for defamation is heavy for a school matter and is better held in reserve where the bribery allegation is repeated.
A proportionate policy would: require a named moderator for any school-related page; remove the three posts and issue a correction for the bribery claim; give the students a hearing; impose a written warning and a service requirement for a first breach; and publish guidelines distinguishing criticism of teachers, which is protected, from personal mockery and disclosure of private information, which are not. The teacher should have a right of reply. This honours Mill by targeting harm, honours fairness by matching sanction to conduct, and gives the school a rule it can apply consistently rather than an improvised expulsion.