Accidental or inadvertent would be when malware generates unbidden popups, or you open a seemingly innocuous email attachment. Here the school intentionally installed spyware, intentionally turned the cameras on, and intentionally took photos. Nothing accidental about it.
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Hereâs how the settlement was distributed, sadly: "$175,000 to be placed in a trust for Blake Robbins, $10,000 for Jalil Hassan and $425,000 for plaintiffâs counsel. "
As the Common Core requires standardized testing on computers and as the Gates Foundation is pretty much running education âreformâ, millions more students will have school-issued computers. (Reform is beginning to look like marketing for the tech industry). With the Snowden revelations, Iâm afraid that students really are going to be spied on. Theyâre just going to hide it better. And that could be used as blackmail later on in life.
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Believing in âblame where blame is dueâ, I would ask that you change the headline and lede on the story so it doesnât refer to a âPhiladelphia high school.â It was the Lower Merion School District, in Montgomery County PA, that was involved in the incident described here. (Thereâs no way Philadelphia schools could issue laptops to each student â theyâre having problems finding money to just keep the doors open.)
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Well, to be fair, it was probably accidental that they got caughtâŚ
Why is this tagged as a âfeatureâ? It is just a slightly longer, 383 word, regular blog post that links to the actual reportingâŚ
Wow. I have to say that I would not send my children to an institution that operated on the assumption that its employees where pedophiles. Now, I am well aware that would put my children at greater risk of being victimized, but I donât think the decreased risk would be worth them having to spend time in such an environment of utter distrust. (As well as one in which they could never speak to an adult alone, probably never get a hug, etcâŚ)
Iâd have to disagree (at least where my own children are concerned). Itâs like streetproofing - terrorizing tens of thousands of children with visions of villainous adults to fractionally reduce the chance of horrible victimization is simply not worth it in my mind, to say nothing of the number of children who become too afraid to approach a stranger when in trouble.
(Of course, in our world, the solution is to never leave a young child unescorted by a parent - a terrible idea for both children and parents.)
Good thing it wasnât remotely like that, then. That camp was one of the most trusting and welcoming places Iâve ever been. Everybody hugged everybody, all the time. It was a lovely campground in the mountains with lots of open space, and most indoor activities were in a huge, airy, sunlit assembly hall, so if you wanted to speak to an adult alone they would just step out of earshot for a moment. I went there four times a year all through high school and didnât actually know about the policy until close to graduation; it didnât affect day-to-day operations at all. There was no mistrustâall the counselors supported the rules and each other.
Would you rather do things the Catholic way? Stick your fingers in your ears and pretend that problems happen to other people? Iâd prefer to be caring and proactive about keeping everyone safe while maintaining community.
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My apologies. It appears that such policies can be implemented successfully. Kudos to the organization.
However, I will say that I find that somewhat rare. Organizations that feel such policies are necessary often do so in an atmosphere that leads unfortunate outcomes. Iâm mostly familiar with this in the elementary school setting, where sometimes physical contact is necessary (especially in kindergarten). (Bathroom disasters, children afraid, tantrums, etc.)
Weâve all seen cases where such fears have led to the natural outcome that such contact was utterly prohibited under all circumstances. Police are called for a child having a tantrum. a 5 year old is expelled for a bathroom accident, etc.
I am aware that as humans we tend to react heavily when a serious outrage has occurred, and with good reason. What can get lost in the anger is what protection against that outrage costs in day-to-day life.
And I think we can both agree that failing to investigate, follow-up, and turn over all evidence of child predation is a crime under any and all circumstances.
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well, thatâs an interesting over-reaction. i was in a completely different type of environment, but got the same kind of advice. in my case (education), it wasnât a policy so much as an informal âtipâ to help avoid trouble from psychotic/psychopathic students who might try to extort grades or other considerations by threat of rape accusation.
anyway, whatever the actual motivating reason, this kind of thing can be implemented fairly unobtrusively unless youâre a freak about it. if done correctly, iâd imagine that the children often donât even notice it let alone being âterrorizedâ over it. there are plenty of good reasons to have a third-party witness anyway; the idea of a one-on-one talk having some kind of magical power is anachronistic at best.
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Indeed. Sadly, the sort of school administration that, for example, came up with this camera debacle is also likely to be the one implements the sort of draconian policies that lead to young children being expelled for firing a chicken finger or tased by police when having a tantrum, etc.
They are the most susceptible to panics and the most likely to produce harm in response to them.
(Of course, to undermine my own case, they may also be the most susceptible to trying to cover up the same if it does occur - these policies can be the result of administrators willing to do anything to avoid an âincidentâ at their school.)
still not seeing it. a policy about one-on-one meetings is categorically different than spying on kids 24/7. the latter is incredibly hard to do correctly, while the former is a modest challenge. they are also categorically different in ends and means.
if your point is just that elementary/middle/high schools are cesspits of mediocre humanity, then, yeah, duh.
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