11-Year-Old Becomes Network Admin for Alabama School

alphadogg points out a story about 11-year-old Jon Penn, who took over control of a 60-computer school network in Alabama after the old administrator suddenly left. Penn provides technical support, selects software, and teaches his classmates about computers. From NetworkWorld: "The first thing Jon found as he leapt into the role of network manager was that he had to map out the network to find out what was on it. He bought some tools for this at CompUSA and realized there was an ungodly amount of computer viruses and spam, so he pressed the school to invest in filtering and antivirus protection. 'These computers are so old they don't support all antivirus programs,' Penn says. The school took advantage of a Microsoft effort called Fresh Start that offers free software upgrades for schools with donated computers, switching from Windows 98 to Windows 2000."

Comments

While these stories are interesting...

[Anonymous Coward]

They always play on the 'boy genius' BS. He's just a normal kid making inexperienced mistakes along the way.

BTW, couldn't he have just downloaded some free Windows or Linux based A/V rather than buying crap at CompUSA?

Re:While these stories are interesting...

[iamhassi]

"They always play on the 'boy genius' BS. He's just a normal kid making inexperienced mistakes along the way."

Exactly. He's just like any other computer-addicted 11 yr old, but instead of wasting his knowledge being forced to play silly final fantasy ps3 games like most kids his age he's been given the opportunity to help his mom ** admin a school.

Average users would call him a "boy genius", slashdotters would probably describe him as "me when I was 11".

"BTW, couldn't he have just downloaded some free Windows or Linux based A/V rather than buying crap at CompUSA?"

probably because it's a school network and most free Windows software is for home users. Probably didn't use Linux because I'm sure he's not that familiar with linux to run 60 networked PCs from it, and besides schools get huge discounts from M$ so why run Linux? And when these kids go to high school and college and the corporate world they'll probably be running Windows anyway so why introduce them to Linux?

What I want to know why is a 11 yr old doing this? Sure it makes for great news but being the network admin for a 60 PC school network is a full time job, where's the child labor laws? Or are they using him for free labor? Ah here it is:
"For his technical recommendations, Jon has had to present his suggestions to the school's management for approval ("Because he's not an adult, I've been hovering around," his mother says.) " **

So he suggests stuff and the adults decide whether it's a good idea or not. Oh I understand. Kind of like asking your kids what the family should have for dinner.

Translation: 11-year old's parents get him a job

[192939495969798999]

Translation: his mother works at the school, and his dad's a civil engineer, no surprise that they'd have something to do with this. Child prodigy stories always gloss over the part you'd really want to know about, like how anyone in the administration figured it would be ok to have a minor sign contracts. Obviously he's not really the admin, his mom is, and he's just doing the work or something like that. An 11-year old isn't legal to work, there are these pesky child labor laws in this country (duh).

Re:Goes to show

[krewemaynard]

When Victory Baptist School, a small private school in Millbrook, Ala., was struggling to keep its computer network together last year, an 11-year-old student named Jon Penn stepped in as network manager. Goes to show that if you can't afford a real IT guy, there might be a student who will do it for free. I didn't see anything in there about his parents getting a tuition break, Jon getting lunches...no kind of compensation was mentioned at all. And don't tell me "Well, he's getting experience..." He is, but I think the school is getting much more out of the deal.

Having said that, I do understand that private schools sometimes struggle to make ends meet, especially on the IT side of things. But this situation still bothers me a bit.

Re:Easy?

[seann]

In this life you will learn that it's not about how easy something is to do, but if you get the opportunity to do it.