In what has become the latest Facebook fiasco, a group of college students recently joined forces to parody the Jena Six assault and then had the dramatization published on the social networking site. A freshman at the University of Louisiana at Monroe posted a photo album and a video showing her friends covered in mud, holding up a noose, acting out the attack and yelling racial epithets.

Several websites have obtained a copy of the video and have pictures of the students displaying the number “6” with their fingers.

The freshman has since apologized for the posting, but not before offending people across the country. The school organized a forum in which more than 500 students and faculty members attended. The University administration has yet to hand down a punishment to the students involved with the incident, but have mandated that multicultural issues become part of the university’s mandatory Freshman Year Seminar.

Although the content of these postings may be politically incorrect and morally reprehensible, the question remains whether these students should be punished. People in this country are afforded the freedom to express their views without fear of being censored or punished by the law or in this case, an educational institution. Should this situation be any different?

For most people, this incident will be a distant memory in a year. For these students, this will no doubt be something they carry with them throughout the rest of their lives. Just ask Hazel Bryan how she feels fifty years after the media published this iconic picture (see above) of her taunting Elizabeth Eckford, one of the Little Rock Nine students who integrated Central Rock High School.