UPDATE

The University of Minnesota mortuary sciences student who was suspended for her allegedly “threatening” Facebook posts has been allowed to return to campus and make up the exams she missed while she was gone. While I still think that her teachers were right to be suspicious, I’m glad that the university recognized that the student’s intentions were not to harm anyone, but simply to make a joke and vent about her break-up. The point remains, however, that you must be extremely careful about what you post on Facebook. You never know who will see it or how they will interpret it.

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Here’s a rule of thumb for all of you Facebook users out there. If you go through a break-up, no matter how mad you are about it, don’t write a Facebook post saying you’d like to stab someone, especially if you’re a mortuary sciences student who actually has access to a scalpel. Sadly, my advice comes too late for one University of Minnesota student who was questioned by police after her instructors reported her for “threatening” Facebook updates.

From the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:

The University of Minnesota mortuary science student was upset and angry after breaking up with her boyfriend, and told her Facebook friends that she was “looking forward to Monday’s embalming therapy. … Give me room, lots of aggression to be taken out with a trocar [a sharp surgical instrument used in embalming].”

Now she’s banned from campus because three instructors in the mortuary science program felt threatened after being made aware of her Facebook posts, prompting a police investigation.

According to the police report, Amanda Tatro, 29, followed her first posting with one that read: “I still want to stab a certain someone in the throat with a trocar though. Hmmm … perhaps I will spend the evening updating my ‘Death List #5′ and making friends with the crematory guy. I do know the code …”

[...]

Tatro told police that the posts were “just me venting,” she said. “I got dumped, which is never a nice thing. I was bitter and really angry about it. For whatever reason, this professor took it personally.”

The police have decided not to file any charges against the student, but the university is still in the process of considering disciplinary action. In the meantime, the student has been banned from campus.

While it may seem to some like the instructors overreacted in this situation, it wouldn’t be the first time a student has carried out violent threats made online. In the wake of tragedies such as the Virginia Tech massacre, teachers, administrators, and even other students are on high alert for dangerous behavior. I can’t say I blame the instructors for voicing their threats, even while I empathize with the student for assuming that her Facebook rants would be taken as a joke.

The truth is, as Facebook continues to open up to the world, nothing you share on the social network should be considered private. Before posting anything to the web, you have to think about how it might be interpreted from a thousand different perspectives. Does that make social networking less fun? Maybe. Does it make social networking useless? Not at all. There is still substantial value for users of social networking websites, but it only comes through discretion.

There is no more room for frivolity online. You can share something that you find funny, but before you do, ask yourself if your mom would think it was funny too. Or your teachers. Or your boss. Even if you use the highest privacy settings, you must consider that your words will be seen by people other than your intended audience. If you don’t prepare for this eventuality, you may find yourself in the same boat as our trocar-wielding Golden Gopher.