Bulldog Hackers -- Where Was IT?

For an outside perspective on Madison High School's technology troubles, see commentary from South Dakota War College (also on KELOLand.com):

Here’s another case where some parents should probably have some serious discussions with their school board (and the elected officials therein) because not only was the punishment ridiculously over the top compared to the offense, but they’re blaming the wrong people. At least a portion of the blame in this matter should reside squarely on the district’s IT staff.

A former system administrator, author Pat Powers, tells us exactly how easy it is for kids to do what they allegedly did, getting around the nearly random, mostly ineffective Internet filters (PP directs your attention to page 21 of the July 2007 MaximumPC). PP also includes simple 15-second instructions for getting around the proxy server.

Good grief -- is PP defending the little troublemakers and encouraging them to wreak more havoc on Madison Central's imperiled servers? Heavens no -- PP declares himself a fellow "mean dad" for whom "innocent until proven guilty" is a fine constitutional principle but no way to run a household of mischievous kids. But he directs some strong criticism at some as-yet unquestioned authorities: the MHS information technology department:

And in this instance, we’re handing inquisitive kids a laptop, and tell them “Use it as if it were your own. Take it home, learn everything you can about it.” And as an afterthought, we add “We’ll spank you if you learn too much about it’s workings.”

If you haven’t figured it out, this is a laughable policy, just for it’s [sic] sheer and utter ignorance.

Obviously, they have a need on a policy level to keep kids out of certain websites. That’s why you need to have a competent IT Department who knows what they’re doing when it comes to filtering Internet content.

But if they can’t or aren’t doing their jobs, why do we find over a dozen kids being suspended for it?

Now don't think PP is going soft on crime. His association with and reading of leftwing blogs hasn't contaminated his thinking that much. But he makes a strong argument that as we assign responsibility for this breach of network security (which, again, consisted of no damage or destruction, probably nothing more than kids finding a way to download some games or log in to Facebook), we need to consider how the adults in charge could have left such a gaping and obvious hole in the security measures.

The IT department at the school is keeping a low profile. Try to find out who's in the IT department, and you'll find that the Madison Central website does offer a link to the Madison Central Technology Help Desk. They will be busy this week implementing new security measures on all 400 student Tablets. But maybe parents should contact the Help Desk to ask how to add those new security measures to their home computers to keep the kids out of bad sites. Unfortunately, the help desk link doesn't work. Neither does the Madison Central Computer Support Site linked on the district contact info page. Oops. Even tech coordinator Todd Beutler's website offers no information. But their e-mail probably works... as long as you don't include any blog links in your e-mail.