Internet Pranks in Schools 404
Ferante125 writes "An interesting article about online pranks by students and teachers' responses to them. There are some interesting stats that sounded a little hard to believe. My immature side finds it funny and my more mature side is interested in the legal aspects." For the most part it seems like this article thinks pranks are basically just name calling and flaming on websites.
schools, the net and the generation gap (Score:5, Insightful)
Schools haven't got a clue about the internet, how to use it and what it could bring them. Pupils are running circles around their supposed betters and are showing earlier in life a degree of independence that teachers wished they had had when they were young. Todays youth are so connected using cellphones, the net and social networking that they are as alien from the previous generation as any that has ever been.
This is all ridiculous and breeds future behavior! (Score:5, Insightful)
Critics, however, contend that words like "annoy" and "embarrass" are too broad and may infringe upon First Amendment protections of parody.
Honestly, if she had fat legs and someone pointed it out to her in person would they have criminal/civil court documents filed over it? No, they would get detention/short-term suspension and move on with their lives. The recent rise in people being upset that a co-worker won't speak to them and is "threatening" because they dress in all black and wear sunglasses or that someone doesn't like them is created by this trend in secondary education that teaches people to behave like this.
I just can't understand why a grown adult would not be able to leave the house because some little fucking bastard said she had fat legs on the Internet. Both the adult and the student need to grow up -- fast.
Re:Does defacing websites count as a prank? (Score:5, Insightful)
Just wait until it's your turn (Score:5, Insightful)
But then, back in the 60's we thought that we were the misunderstood generation who were going to sweep away all the old farts and bring in the dawning of the age of Aquarius so some things don't change.
Re:This is all ridiculous and breeds future behavi (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:schools, the net and the generation gap (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, there are always a handful of individuals at the cutting edge, not only of technology but of culture. These people existed in previous generations, and they will always exist; in many ways, they operate very similarly across multiple generations, just with a change of medium.
But the vast majority of today's youth also have no clue about the Internet, how to use it, and what it could bring them. They show exceptionally limited independent action and little to no independent thought.
Today's youth may be connected- but there's no real information passing between them.
There will always be a... cutting edge, a group of individuals both as students and as adults, who will find ways to use everything they have available in the best ways possible. This has always been true, and as a rule, people have never really known what to do about them.
Unfortunately, as a student, I have far less confidence in my peers than you seem to.
Depends on the prank... (Score:5, Insightful)
If it was something dumb and non-harmful, it was good for a laugh... this is where most teachers fail it.
If it damaged an OS install, I'd make the kid stay after school the entire week and re-load every workstation image in the classroom each day.
If it escaped the local network and damaged something else (fortunately I never saw that happen), then the kid gets to face the consequences full-on, and I would've been stuck with preparing a forensics report to show how it happened and what I would do to prevent it in the future.
The point is to make this clear up-front, and if it isn't harmful, use it as a teaching aid. It also helps to know, as a techer, WTF you're doing around the machinery (unlike one Texas teacher who IIRC had a kid arrested for "hacking" because he used Windows Messenger to pass notes in class... can't remember the specifics, but it was a dumb overreaction to say the least).
Weak (Score:1, Insightful)
What a crock of shit. The kids would be gossiping about the teachers in the same way, even if the internet didn't exist. If the teacher cares this much about what her students think, she needs to get a different job. Even the article notes that in most of these cases, it's "incompetent staff members" that can't take it.
If you ask me, the idea of cyber-bullying is ridiculous, except in the most extreme cases (where it's generally against the law anyway, ie, hacking a webcam/phone for observation).
People need to toughen up, IMHO.
Wait 'till they need a job (Score:5, Insightful)
It's going to be a hard lesson to learn (for those that commit serious enough 'offenses') but I strongly suspect that the next generation of kids will know the risks as they get pummeled by their school with "Cyber Bullying awareness" classes and such along with all the other becoming an adult type sex education classes.
Pranks? (Score:2, Insightful)
Back when I was in high school (gawd I'm feeling really old all of a sudden) back before Windows 3.0 existed, before most people knew what the internet was, I pulled some real pranks. The school had a demerit system that was managed on the same computer system that they used to teach COBOL programming. (Yeah, that's the language they taught us way back then) So one day I hacked into the demerit system and gave a bunch of teachers and the headmaster demerits. Two days later an updated list was posted in the hallway and the whole school saw that the faculty were now getting demerits as well. Now THAT is a prank. While I was there I also did other things like launch fireworks in the middle of the campus on the headmasters birthday, helped move a VW Beetle into the dining room, and launched a helium-filled farewell sign to all the seniors when I graduated. Those are pranks. This article isn't about pranks.
Re:Yet another case made for homeschooling... (Score:4, Insightful)
Homeschooling just segregates them even more and inhibits their socialization. The fact that you want to choose with whom they socialize is kind of disturbing. They aren't some sort of pet that you get to train. You should allow children to grow and develop with guidance, rather than follow some sort of path that you want to vicariously travel. In my opinion it's homeschooling that will hinder your potential child's socialization, rather than public schools.
Re:Does defacing websites count as a prank? (Score:5, Insightful)
Yet, the article contains this:
"Last month, Charlotte became the second North Carolina school district to criminally charge a student for creating a website that accused a teacher of criminal behavior including pedophilia."
This sets you on the bad side of the law, and if you don't have any proof, a judge won't be amused.
Re:schools, the net and the generation gap (Score:3, Insightful)
The only generation gap I can see is a dynamic one. These barely literate retards with their social networking sites and mobile phone connectivity , which can hardly be classes as communication, leave school and realise that they "cnt wrt their CV n sms lang", then promptly grow up.
Fundamentally I don't think that technology changes the rules of engagement that much.
Re:This is all ridiculous and breeds future behavi (Score:5, Insightful)
I just can't understand why a grown adult would not be able to leave the house because some little fucking bastard said she had fat legs on the Internet. Both the adult and the student need to grow up -- fast.
Re:schools, the net and the generation gap (Score:5, Insightful)
Every generation had its stars, and every generation will have them. And the new generations have higher possibilities (mainly in access to information and possibilities of training), so they can do things the stars of the previous generations could only dream about. All the while, all this new technology makes it easier to work less for those inclined to do so, so the gap between the stars and the rest might even get wider.
my wife is a teacher, and it sucks (Score:5, Insightful)
my wife is a teacher, and believe me, it is bad out there. she teaches 6th grade mathematics, and she is dealing with the internet, bullying, and humiliation on a weekly basis because of it. fortunately, the kids at her school aren't really old enough to know how to create proper websites yet, or dont have the money to sneak small webcams into the classroom, but their internet usage definitely affects the school environment.
with the prevalence of myspace, many kids are threatening each other and bullying each other over the internet (i still dont see how cyber-bullying is possible, since you can always just "not go to that site", but whatever...). they get caught up in the "he said, she said" game, and say some very awful things. teachers are all advised not to have myspace pages or facebook pages, for if they post pictures of them at the beach, at the bar, or even at home, children can and will spin them so that the teacher somehow comes across in a bad light. and the kids are so resourceful that they dont even take into account what a teacher says about themselves. one of my wife's coworkers had a friend sign her "wall" or whatever in myspace, and the comment left made a reference to a stripper or stripping (something along the lines of "you looked like a stipper that night"), and the kids in her class saw the comment and started telling people around the school that one of the teachers was a stripper. of course, this made it all the way to the parents, and they began calling the school. the kids spun something that someone else said, not even what the teacher said.
they are threatening each other, and posting inappropriate material about each other, which is creating fodder for the classrooms. 5th and 6th grade girls are posting pictures of themselves wearing little clothing, talking about their sexual experiences and knowledge online, and are basically begging to be preyed upon. what is worse is that the parents don't know and don't care. people can dismiss it as much as they want, and believe that it doesn't happen or that it is just a small percentage of kids. well, believe me, it is not. it is much worse than you think.
it is a parent's responsibility to know what their child is doing on the internet. those who say that it is "too much work" and that their kid is "smarter than i am" are full of it, because we often do meet the parents who put in the work, who monitor their children properly, and who properly look after their children and prevent this kind of behavior. we know that parents can handle it because there is still a small percentage out there who do it right. the rest of them need to look at themselves, and not their children, and certainly not the teachers.
teachers get paid a small amount of money to do a ton of work. my wife works 10 hour days, gets a 15 minute lunch, and is not only expected to be the one to educate them with the material that the school board deems appropriate (which grows larger every year), but yet she is expected to be their moral educator as well; a job she gladly does. most of them take pride in their work, and believe me, they hate giving out bad grades and low test scores because it makes them look bad. the problem with education these days is not the school, nor the teachers, nor the funding (believe it or not). it is the parents. parents have stopped being accountable. they have stopped checking their kids homework, monitoring their activity, and disciplining their children. they make excuses for their children (ADD, ODD, ADHD...), and often laugh at the behavior that their child is displaying. parenting in america has become a dismal affair.
Re:This is all ridiculous and breeds future behavi (Score:5, Insightful)
Because things on the Internet have the potential to (a) be seen by a lot more people, and (b) last almost forever. There's a difference between calling someone a fatass in the classroom or schoolyard, and doing it on youtube.
Yes it will happen, but no, it shouldn't happen. There's a difference between descriptive and normative ethics. For example, I have never heard of teachers were the pupils posted posters all over town describing how much they disliked them. And if it happened, I'm sure it would involve a criminal case. Kids need to learn that with greater power (the Internet) comes greater responsibility. If they can't handle that responsibility, they shouldn't use the Internet. Lots of people probably shouldn't (and now I'm talking about posting stuff, not using Internet banking or similar things that everybody needs to do).
Actually, firefighters do that all the time. Going into a burning building is a very high-risk operation, and you need to carefully examine many factors, including temperature, before you decide to enter. Similarly, school-teachers are, like most people, emotional beings, and if the abuse is to large, they can't continue teaching.
Re:hacking servers (Score:3, Insightful)
My ten bucks says you had an easily-guessed password. Most of those little snots talk a big game but can't handle doing anything more advanced than double-clicking the script.
Re:This is all ridiculous and breeds future behavi (Score:2, Insightful)
Oh fuck that. I put up with and shelled out a ton of grief (I still do) in secondary school. You didn't see me hiding inside my house because assholes insisted that because I swam and shaved once a year that I was gay and that was before I was an adult... I expect that an adult be able to handle criticism, especially if it's fucking true.
Hell, just a few months ago I was tipping the scales at 260 lbs and got poked fun at by my buddies, co-workers and people who didn't know me. Did I fucking hide out in my house and cry and say, "woe is me"? No, I fucking did something about it and lost 80 lbs -- sadly now I'm thinner than those bastards who thought it was funny to poke fun and they instead tell me I'm too thin.
You can't win.
Re:Does defacing websites count as a prank? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Yet another case made for homeschooling... (Score:5, Insightful)
For example, she had never learned that girls aren't supposed to be good at math. She didn't realize that when you're in class, and you don't understand something, you're supposed to keep quiet instead of raising your had to ask for clarification!
And worst of all, she didn't know you're supposed to pick on kids who are smaller/weaker/different! I guess they had to work out some remedial classes for her or something...
Re:This is all ridiculous and breeds future behavi (Score:5, Insightful)
On what grounds, littering? It's legal to dislike someone. It's legal to say you dislike someone.
It's legal to make posters describing how much you dislike someone.
Re:Does defacing websites count as a prank? (Score:5, Insightful)
Now...I understand that the students can be arrested for threats...but, racial slurs?
While such things are despicable....I don't think at this time, that they are illegal, and are indeed protected speech.
While you may not agree with people...they still can say what they like or dislike about a person's race, sexual preference, etc without govt. intrusion. There is a difference in arresting someone for threats, and yet a WHOLE other thing if trying to arrest for 'thoughts' and opinons expressed. That latter one gets scary.
Re:Yet another case made for homeschooling... (Score:5, Insightful)
No thanks. Home and private education worked fine for hundreds of years before the late 1800s when public schools were invented to turn kids into wage slaves at factories.
And simply because a kid is home-schooled doesnt mean they don't have friends and get out more. We have churches and civic programs that kids need to be involved in as well.
Re:my wife is a teacher, and it sucks (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Does defacing websites count as a prank? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Wait 'till they need a job (Score:1, Insightful)
Interviewer: I see here on your myspace page that you attended 150 "crazy drunk-ass parties" and describe yourself as "willing to do *anything* for a good time". And on flickr we find pictures of you using controlled substances.
I think in the next 20 years we are going to see some very interesting hiring practices and lawsuits.
Re:schools, the net and the generation gap (Score:3, Insightful)
There are trade-offs, advantages, and drawbacks to everything. To very roughly paraphrase: "For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven."
Re:Does defacing websites count as a prank? (Score:2, Insightful)
Every TFA'er.
Hint (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:schools, the net and the generation gap (Score:3, Insightful)
I do disagree with your disillusionment with your peers. I do feel that the average high school student IS more gifted with computers than the average high school teacher. Many teachers never had access to computers until they were retrained in how to use them. Meanwhile most high school students have grown up around computers all their lives and THINK in terms of how to use them. They take them for granted and know you can message instantly, spellcheck documents, or look up data on the net. Just being familiar with the technology is a huge advantage.
Yes, most teens will "waste" this advantage playing games or messaging "R U rdy 2 go" with friends, but that is still running circles around teachers who have to stop and think on how to message someone. And one last comment I should also state that while not all students are created equal, neither are all teachers. The gifted circle of teens I mentioned had a teacher who recognized this and worked with them. It was a beautiful synergy where in many schools the creative energies would have been wasted in an adversarial relationships. The kids were given more freedom as a reward of their network assistance and they did waste much of this time playing games and goofing off. But even while they "wasted time" playing quake many of them were learning a lot about internet ports, local networking, etc. It was just the more gifted ones teaching the others rather than the teacher leading everything. (I was allowed to visit the class and watch this in person. It was an interesting experience.)
Have faith in your peers, they may seem like crazy good-for-nothings, but a lot of learning can go on even in what appears to be a completely useless activity. This coming from a good for nothing who has done quite well in life.
Your post says a lot about personal entitlement (Score:4, Insightful)
And? Why do you think the fact that someone gives a teacher money entitles students to be disrespectful toward them? I can't think of a single situation where being an asshole toward someone is justified because the other person is getting paid.
And part of being a good person is not intentionally making other people's lives more difficult. Also, your reply doesn't address the point, which is, if you don't like how your class is taught, why aren't you doing more than just disrupting it?
Ultimately, your argument boils down to "we're paying you so put up with it" to which I would reply, no. No one should have to forgo their dignity to teach.
You are making the same arguments so many other students tried in school, the difference being the rest of us grew up and learned why they were ridiculous.
Re:Does defacing websites count as a prank? (Score:3, Insightful)
Teachers invest way too much in their authority.. they freak out when kids figure out a way to subvert it, so the situation escaletes to litigation.
authority is the only thing that teachers have that can force kids (anyone under the age of about 24 or 25 is still just a kid) to listen and obey. that main sound a bit scary and totalitarian, but guess what, that is the way it is for the rest of your life.
in the work place, you have a boss. he must maintain his authority and invest in it heavily in order to get his workers to work hard, especially in today's competitive world, to keep his business afloat. he must demand the respect of his employees so that work gets done, and people dont spend all day posting comments on slashdot..:-)
if you have a job, go to work tomorrow and subvert your boss. go above him/her and start calling the shots, belittle him/her, and try to minimize the value of his/her existence. i dare you. if you own your own business, go to your customers and try and go above their heads, cutting them out of the loop, or better yet, tell them that they make bad decisions, and that you are going to decide things for them for their own good. you will fail, and do you know why?
your boss, just like your teacher, answers to someone else. they are part of an entire process that is oblivious to you, and you dont even know it. they attend meetings, conferences, teleconferences, customers' offices, and perform more duties than you probably know about. teachers are the same way.
do you know why they need authority? teachers (like my wife) get a 4 year degree from an accredited university, spend a semester student teaching for free, and then must go back for a semester of graduate school (meaning they spend 5 years in college). they are under constant supervision, and if they mistep one bit, then reactionist parents will be there to tell her how inherently wrong she is. teachers answer to their principal, the superintendent, and the school board. that school board answers to the public, and they decide the curriculum based upon what the president and his staff deem as "necessary" for a student of X age to know. hence, you have standardized tests every year or two to gauge how much you know. if a student does bad, and lets say gets a 71% average, which is still a C, then the student can go on to the next grade. but guess what? the teacher receives demerits because a 71% is a horrible score.
But it's hard to ignore how absurd the high school classrom authority situation is
the high school classroom authority situation is only absurd because people like yourself (i am assuming you because you made and defend the point) make it so. in all actuality, if kids would just shut up, pay attention, do their homework, and follow the rules, they would have a lot more free time. a teacher has to cover a certain amount of material, which is decided by the school board. if kids would shut up and do the work, they could blaze through it, and then you could really spend time on things that would expand your mind and truely progress your education; things that could propel you above the rest so that you have an edge in the job market.
it is understandable that you will spend a lot of hours with a teacher and be able to develop a repetoire with him/her, but they have to maintain authority because you wont do a damn thing if they dont. if you are so willing to subvert your teacher, hell, why not subvert the principal. why feed into his authoritarian attitude and situation? you may know more about a subject than a teacher, and you may even be smarter than them on a whole. in 8th grade, i had better ACT and SAT scores than most of my teachers, but knowing what i know now, it doesnt mean a thing. life lessons, work experience, and the ability to adapt and thrive in a given situation means more than any score, and it is something that people in high school, and even college, have yet to experience
Re:Does defacing websites count as a prank? (Score:2, Insightful)
I had a situation with my daughter a few yeas back and referencing another student behavior towards my daughter ( first grade ), Turned real ugly, but I never blamed the teacher, the teacher was being blamed by the other parent and I was blaming the other parent for lacking to be responsible for their kids behavior ( their boy child was hair pulling and name calling my daughter ), I just needed the teacher to tell me the facts as she saw them.
got super heated; that I was hair line way from filing charges against the child and if I could pull it, the parents. They choose to move out of the town.
Don't Shift Responsibility (Score:3, Insightful)
As a foster parent, I've had some really badly behaved kids come to stay with us. Do I blame their birth parents for teaching/allowing such behavior? Yes. Do I use that as an excuse to allow them to continue behaving badly under my care? No. This increasingly popular notion that we should wait for other people to fix our problems annoys me to no end.
If it's a problem for the teacher, the teacher should deal with it. I don't buy the idea that there's nothing the teacher can do because it is constitutionally protected speech. That may limit the options, but it doesn't eliminate all of them.
My personal child discipline method consists of two steps: find the underlying cause of the behavior, and find the right incentive to match. In this type of case, the underlying cause is probably covering for their own poor academic performance, or trying to boost their popularity among other poor performers.
In the first case, I would offer a way to help them catch up, such as a redo of a dismal homework assignment. In the second case, I would threaten to embarrass them in class. That embarrassment would probably take the form of informing the class that people tease those they love, so I'm hanging this printout of a myspace page with a heart around it, because the student must really love me to tease me this much. I say the best way to fight bad free speech is with some more free speech.
I'd feel compelled to inform the parents in any case, but I would offer to make that easier if they were cooperative, and would give the kid a chance to fix it first.