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8th Grader Suspended for Using 'net send' Command

Posted by Cliff on from the you-can't-make-this-stuff-up dept.

HRH King Lerxst writes: "The Fort Worth Star-Telegram has an article detailing how a middle school student was suspended for three days for 'hacking.' His hack? Sending a popup message to the other computers in the school...from within the shcool." The 8th grader in question used the "net send" command to send a single word message ("Hey!") to the 80 machines tied to his school's network. How this can be construed as "hacking", I leave up to you.

3 of 499 comments (clear)

  1. School days by Sklivvz · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This does remind me of my school days, I got apprehended because I was playing with a magnet during lesson. It also reminded me what school (well, Italian school to be precise) seems to be all about: taking away the fun away from culture.

    Because that's what hacking is, it's a form of culture and fun. And that 13 y.o. boy is a hacker, or at least he has a hacker attitude, which is good! Honest fun with computers should be encouraged by the school, not reprehended.

    And did you read the email from the teacher? "Before you make comments you should be a teacher". Quite typical. Using the same argument I would then say, well, before calling someone a hacker, you should be a hacker too, right?

    Oh, by the way, when I was his age I was hacking my Speccy... fortunately for me, it was not in that school otherwise I would have got expelled!

    Now for the karma whoring: "It's Micro$oft's fault! If they used Linux then there wouldn't have been any chance of NET SENDs" :-)

    By the way, what would have happened if he did launched a batch file like this (say it's called a.bat)
    net send foo Hey!
    call a.bat
    ? That IS annoying... ;-P

    --
    My Stack Overflow user
  2. It's called hacking... by Smidge204 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...because the people in charge (Teachers, parents, school board, etc) don't understand what's going on.

    It's just that simple. Whenever someone does something with a computer that they don't understand, it's hacking. A High School friend of mine got accused of 'hacking' by downloading Netscape once.

    Fear and ignorance, ignorance and fear...
    =Smidge=

  3. Letter time by phorm · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Dear Mr. Rollins,

    Before continueing, I might want to inform you that the following article has appeared on a major internet website, one visited by tens of thousands of technicians and other professionals a day. You may want to prepare your inbox.

    http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/columnists/dave_ li eber/7643262.htm

    As per the content of the article, it may be biased, but I am writing to assure you of the following:

    The "net send" command is in no way a 'hacking' tool. "Net" is a command used by windows/windows-users for many network tasks, and "net send" is a communication command which does not adversely affect any machine.

    Furthermore, the punishment for this "offense" seems neither fair nor warranted? You may not think that I have any cognisance of the type of things that occur in schools, but I can assure you - as an IT support technician/admin for a school-district - that I know a great deal about it. This problem would have been easily dealt with, and any issues caused by it not warranting such a punishment.

    Furthermore, the student - in investigating parts of computing that are obscure to many - seems to be showing promise and intelligence. To attack the natural curiousity of the student is to stifle his natural inclination to learn and investigate. Rather than punishment, you should consider giving the student materials to learn about computing in a way that might be more productive and advanced than "net send."

    Certainly I myself did a certain amount of investigating and playing with such commands when I first gained interest in computing. As my teachers promoted my curiousity I eventually found a lucrative career in both computer programming and administration. Had such a punishment been meted to me, it may have impaired the drive which brought me to my current employment.

    Please consider that while the commands used may be obscure to many, they are not highly technical nor dangerous in nature. An offensive action taken against the unknown is neither ethical nor mature in nature, and such reactions should be the bane of modern education.

    Sincerely,

    (my name here)
    IT Support Administration

    (and yes, I do work in educational IT support. suspension for net send would be laughable in comparison to the other things students try to do or do here)