jawfish

School Rules 2
john posted in politics & culture on June 23rd, 2005

High school students charged with felony for breaking admin on school-issued computers…

Before everybody goes bonkers about the injustice, the inevitable furor will probably get the school board to back down. These are middle-class kids, children of taxpayers and voters. The cops probably spilled their coffee from laughing when they heard about it.

Confronted with the usual drug problems, insolence and slackerism, and a deadening bureaucracy, the school board fails to find a voice of reason. Well who would serve on a school board? Its like being in the stocks, plus you are responsible for a huge budget, with very little control.

Quoting from the Kutztown Area Patriot (Kutztown PA)

Thirteen Kutztown Area High School students are facing felony charges for tampering with district-issued laptop computers.

According to parent testimony and confirmed by an otherwise vaguely-worded letter from the Kutztown Police Department, students got hold of the system’s secret administrative password and reconfigured their computers to achieve greater Internet and network access.

Some students used the newfound freedom to download music and inappropriate images from the Internet.

…

The more computer-savvy students began to disable the administrations’ ability to spy on the students’ computer use. For others, it became a game, trying to outsmart the administration and compete with fellow students who held the secret, Shrawder said.

“I don’t know why this is such a big deal,” he said. “At no time was the security of the server breached, and I don’t know that it has cost the taxpayers any money.”

Winkler ( Superintendent Brenda S. Winkler ) agreed that the server, where grades and other private records are stored, was never threatened.

….

The iBook laptops were issued to all high school students last fall in an experimental program with Apple computers.

The program will cost up to $900,000 over the next four years.

Winkler reaffirmed the district’s commitment to the program saying it has been “a learning experience.”

Contact Dan Roman at djroman@berksmontnews.com