Byline: Wallace & Smith
The high-tech equivalent of pulling a fire alarm at school was realized at Twin Groves Junior High in Buffalo Grove recently when two students sent an e-mail bomb threat to the school.
But if any other juvenile pranksters are getting it into their heads that such a stunt might be good for a laugh, think again.
One of two students responsible for sending the e-mail has been expelled and the other is facing similar punishment. The two also were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct, and they may face additional charges, according to Buffalo Grove Police Investigator Tim Gretz. And they will now be getting a firsthand lesson in our justice system as their case makes its way through the Lake County juvenile court system.
Furthermore, Keith Mann, the director of technology for Northwest Suburban High School District 214, pointed out that it's virtually impossible to send an e-mail message that cannot be traced.
"You can always backtrack to see who did this," he said.
Gretz said the Twin Groves students used highly sophisticated language in their bomb threat and were savvy enough to make an attempt to disguise the origin of their e-mail, which was sent from one of their homes through a private e-mail service account.
The company that provided the account helped police trace the source of the e-mail to a modem in the Buffalo Grove-Lincolnshire area, Gretz said. From there, they filled in their investigation from information provided by a parent and identified the two culprits within two days of the incident.
* * *
Internet (ab)use policies: The Twin Groves students are, of course, not the first to have gotten into trouble through inappropriate uses of the Internet. Students in other states also have been disciplined for e-mailing death threats to the president.
And though access to e-mail and the Internet is considered an important tool for students, it does come with its opportunities for abuses.
And, unfortunately, Mann said he expects that the number of abuses will continue to grow until schools get used to having the Internet around and "determine proper rules, regulations and policies."
"We're going to see tons and tons of examples" of Internet abuses, Mann said, "probably things we can't even think of yet."
Mann said that as students learn to use the new tools of information-gathering, they also need to "have a full discussion about networking ethics."
Most districts have started this discussion by establishing Internet use policies. Most of those require parents to sign off on allowing their children to use the Internet with the understanding that the schools may not be able to control access completely and prevent students from finding inappropriate information or images. Students, in turn, have to acknowledge that Internet access is a privilege that, like any other privilege, could be lost if they abuse it.
Though most parents seem concerned about their children accessing pornography over the Internet, experts in educational technology point out that there are lots of other inappropriate or illegal things students can find or do in cyberspace.
But we won't get into those. We don't want to give anybody any ideas.
* * *
Lincoln's progenies: Christin Luckman, a senior at Barrington High School, and Abbas Khan, a sophomore at Wheeling High School, have qualified to represent Illinois in the Lincoln Life Lincoln-Douglas Debates at the National Speech Tournament in Minneapolis during the week of June 15.
At the speech tournament, Christin, Abbas and Anne Coleman of New Trier High School in Winnetka will compete against more than 200 other Lincoln-Douglas debate winners from across the country. The participants are competing for $20,000 in scholarship money being offered by the Lincoln National Life Insurance Co. The top four finishers will receive $8,000, $6,000, $4,000 and $2,000, respectively.
The students are part of the Northern Illinois Forensic League District. The district tournament was held in March at Loyola Academy. To qualify for their district, they won a rigorous, double-elimination tournament debating more than 40 students representing 21 different high schools.
* * *
NASA visit: Students at Schaumburg High School will get a chance to meet one of their more successful graduates Thursday. Catherine A. Larson, a 1983 graduate, has been selected as the school's distinguished graduate for 1997.
She will be the guest speaker at the school's honors convocation.
Larson is an engineer for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Her current assignment is a space shuttle propulsion systems flight control officer; she is one of only five people in the United States qualified for this position.
The Distinguished Graduate Award is presented to Schaumburg High School graduates who have achieved consistent success in their chosen careers and/or have made significant contributions to the school or community.
Комментариев нет:
Отправить комментарий