I've seen slanderous things written about teachers and students all through my school years, in bathrooms, on chairs and desks. It's called grafitti. But the trend of getting a law inforcement agency or teaching personelle to confiscate the personal possessions of a student due to percieved moral infractions is becomming incresingly common, (probably tenfold in Utah) and that's a very dangerous problem.
When I was in high school, we had cameras on every hallway and our lockers periodically searched by drug dogs, at which point we were forcably detained if we attempted to leave our classrooms during that time. I am not a drug dealer, but I was personally chastized later on not for having anything illigal in my things or my posession, but for having a poster of a very attractive, scantily-clad celebrity in my locker, which, btw, did not attract the attention of the drug dogs. At the curiosity of one of the teachers near by, my locker was then forced open and checked for pornography. I assure you none was there, but the fact that I was forcefully moved away from my locker so that a teacher (not even a law-enforcement agent!) could rummage through my belongings got me furious.
I had a computer disk eventually confiscated, a disk that contained a collection of personal writings of my own and many close friends who were helping me launch an art zine. (you remember zines.) The disk was later stolen from one of the teachers (who kept it in an open shoebox on her desk full of other disks.) She refused to return it, and told me only that it was given to her for use in the school literary magazine. Although I had previously agreed to give her a disk contining poems and stories for her magazine, the fact that she had also lost that disk probably made it even more difficult to convince her I was not backing out on publication by swiping my work. (Again, I most certainly was not.) Even if I was, I still should have been entitled to have my disk back.
The point is, this kind of incompetence is becomming common-place in school systems where just about anything goes as long as you show up for work, and it's probably very similar to the situation Ian is in right now, only he is being attacked on a much grander scale. No doubt some of what he said was true, and mocking the weaknesses of those in charge has been a legal right (political parody) for many years past.
Having your computer confiscated for a web page is like having your car stolen and dismantled for driving it to an underpass and spray-painting "microsoft sucks!" on the concrete. What does the car have to do with the free speech display? And more importantly, why kill the messanger? There's a reason pollitical parody has had such strong legal protection, and it's a very disconcerting to wonder if the time is comming where to question authority means to have your privacy raped and your belongings stolen. Getthe kid to therapy and explain to his parents the fine art of parenting, lest the internet become for little Ian the no-holds-barred babysitter the television was for them.
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I've seen slanderous things written about teachers and students all through my school years, in bathrooms, on chairs and desks. It's called grafitti. But the trend of getting a law inforcement agency or teaching personelle to confiscate the personal possessions of a student due to percieved moral infractions is becomming incresingly common, (probably tenfold in Utah) and that's a very dangerous problem.
When I was in high school, we had cameras on every hallway and our lockers periodically searched by drug dogs, at which point we were forcably detained if we attempted to leave our classrooms during that time. I am not a drug dealer, but I was personally chastized later on not for having anything illigal in my things or my posession, but for having a poster of a very attractive, scantily-clad celebrity in my locker, which, btw, did not attract the attention of the drug dogs. At the curiosity of one of the teachers near by, my locker was then forced open and checked for pornography. I assure you none was there, but the fact that I was forcefully moved away from my locker so that a teacher (not even a law-enforcement agent!) could rummage through my belongings got me furious.
I had a computer disk eventually confiscated, a disk that contained a collection of personal writings of my own and many close friends who were helping me launch an art zine. (you remember zines.) The disk was later stolen from one of the teachers (who kept it in an open shoebox on her desk full of other disks.) She refused to return it, and told me only that it was given to her for use in the school literary magazine. Although I had previously agreed to give her a disk contining poems and stories for her magazine, the fact that she had also lost that disk probably made it even more difficult to convince her I was not backing out on publication by swiping my work. (Again, I most certainly was not.) Even if I was, I still should have been entitled to have my disk back.
The point is, this kind of incompetence is becomming common-place in school systems where just about anything goes as long as you show up for work, and it's probably very similar to the situation Ian is in right now, only he is being attacked on a much grander scale. No doubt some of what he said was true, and mocking the weaknesses of those in charge has been a legal right (political parody) for many years past.
Having your computer confiscated for a web page is like having your car stolen and dismantled for driving it to an underpass and spray-painting "microsoft sucks!" on the concrete. What does the car have to do with the free speech display? And more importantly, why kill the messanger? There's a reason pollitical parody has had such strong legal protection, and it's a very disconcerting to wonder if the time is comming where to question authority means to have your privacy raped and your belongings stolen. Getthe kid to therapy and explain to his parents the fine art of parenting, lest the internet become for little Ian the no-holds-barred babysitter the television was for them.