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Principal Cancels Classes, Sues Over MySpace Prank
Earnest writes "A prank MySpace page has led to a barrage of lawsuits and the misuse of school resources as the principal targeted by the pranksters attempted to find the perpetrators. In 2005, students at Hickory High School in Pennsylvania created a fake MySpace profile of principal Eric Trosch. As a result, the school's IT staff spent about 25 percent of his work time dealing with the issue and finding the culprits. That's not all. 'Trosch kept at it, even taking measures that led to the "cancellation of computer programming classes as well as usage of computers for research for class projects." Now the basic educational mission of the school was being compromised in order to keep students from visiting these profiles during school hours (students were still free to look at the profiles from home, of course).'"
I work in a school doing IT work in the UK and basically, It's not that simple. :)
:)
Firstly any in-house IT is line managed by the senior management team in the school, this will include the Head Teacher (equivalent to a Principle in the US). So we absolutely have to do what we're asked to. Even if it's silly. Yes, there's PHB syndrome in local education.
Secondly, doing any sort of filtering is not easy. It requires hardware, software and skilled manpower to accomplish. Something underfunded schools are short of.
I work in a UK school doing IT support so I have a front line view of what happens.
At a county level we have a fitler that works on basic URL blocking. It's called 'SmartFilter' and it's definately not very 'Smart'. Pupils can easily evade this filter by using CGI:Proxy, PHPProxy, Google Translate or Google Cache for example. Basically as long as the url doesn't match something in it's blacklist, it gets through.
Therefore, at a school level I have implmented a Linux/Squid based proxy with a content filter called DansGuardian. It's a lot more intelligent about filtering and works along the same lines as antispam filters. As well as domain/url blocking it allows grey listing based on the content of the web pages being pulled through it. You assign words or phrases a numerical value and if the page hits a certain score then it's blocked. As the filter is no longer simply relying on the domains/urls this solves the proxy problem.
Yes, some stuff will always get through, I think the above solution is about as good as it gets currently.
Managed by the "school senior management team"?
What?
If I ever get employed in such a place they WILL fire me in under a week.
I will NEVER, EVER document what I did to a computer in any way more extended than "I had to buy this part. Here is a receipt for accounting and warranty." I will always keep each and every computer running and tweaked Just Right though.
And what is that if not a school dictator? He had the IT team spend time tracking a prank? Please PLEASE tell me that clinical signs of megalomania are an impeachment clause for school staff in the US.
As for filtering... anyone with half a brain can type "SSL tunnel" or something in google.
Making laws based on opinions that stem up from false informations leads to witch hunts.
No, kids! Don't look at my fake MySpace profile! I demand you don't! I'm really, really, serious!!
By over-reacting he has called far more attention on himself and, in turn, the school district and community at large. And not the good kind of attention.
He should have just gone with it, and had fun with it. And maybe, just maybe, use it as an easy-to-access tool to assess what the students think of his methodology? I know, criticism is a lost art.
Personally, I would have just created a fake profile of the kid that made it and photoshopped him to wear a frilly pink tutu and had a good laugh with the kid (whilst dodging his parents).
...but let me defend the principal, at least on some grounds.
These teenagers, as well as most teenagers in general, do not understand and will not consider implications of their actions before doing something stupid. They especially don't understand that when you post something on the internet, it is a form of publication; the world is able to read what you wrote. Purposefully publishing lies in printed form with the willful intent to harm someone's reputation is called slander, and is punishable by law. These kids clearly did exactly that. The principal's daughter was emotionally distraught when she discovered the pages, as well as the principal. The student's work was malicious in nature. An apology isn't going to make up for the harm that was done.
I will agree that the principal overreacted in regards to obliterating access to a computer in the school, but I can understand where his anger is coming from.
Um, what about the millions of web proxies open on the net?
This is what I was just sitting here thinking. You have jackasses like Bennett Haselton setting up proxies all over the place, with stupid names like www.yellowcream.com, www.volleyballwizard.com, etc. What's worse, he aims them DIRECTLY at those in k-12 schools. I've had an email exchange with him one day. He came across (to me) to have the mentality of a teenager (one who had to sit behind a filter of some sort) in high school. He even removed the email address I was using from the circumventor list (good thing I'm signed up with multiple email addresses!).
About a year (or so) ago, he even started providing the needed files for people to set one up in their home, so they could use their DSL/Cable/etc connections, making the job even MORE difficult. I guess an admin could block all the IP ranges of the local "broadband" providers...
Yes, I understand the message Bennett is trying to get out there: Censorship is bad. But when you are using someone Else's internet connection, who the hell are you to demand that certain web pages work? If you are not paying for the connection (and the kids in the K-12, the people Bennett seems to be targeting), you have no right to make any demands. Period.
Maybe one day Bennett will understand that. Even if he doesn't, I still point out his list to anyone that asks me about filtering so they can filter out his crap (and learn what to look for on their networks when the kids/whoever set up their own proxies).
bork bork bork!
I exchanged a few emails in the late 90's with Mr. Haselton, back when his big thing was reverse engineering the block lists of proprietary software. As an admin who had been, in the past, grudgingly installed and enforced filtering software, I asked him if, given no option, we should ("we" being the general anti-filter types) be pushing transparent software, such as using the squid/squidGuard combo? After all, at least we can customize our sites to match the requirements, and not have these stupid politically/religiously motivated lists of sites to block when they do not violate the advertised policy/category of the commercial software.
His response (in a nutshell) was that the restricting the flow of any information was bad. Always. And that those who truly believe that stance should not compromise by using a lesser or two evils.
I agree with his point on principle. If we're setting up proxies across the 'net so political dissidents in China can access Western news sources, can we simultaneously feel good about ourselves by restricting our own youth (or adults, for that matter) in our own country from accessing certain sites? In fact, if filtering were pretty much rendered pointless by his (and other's) efforts, I would breath a sigh of relief and not have to worry about even trying any more when an employer would ask.
I won't even get into the public-funded sites vs private companies side of the issue. I think responsibility should be granted for all end users, regardless of the site. If it truly becomes too much of an issue, suspend/fire the offending students/workers or cut off all web access if you feel that strongly about it.
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