Computer-Use Policy -- The New Patriot Act for Kids

Fourteen students at Madison High School have received a two-day suspension for violating the school's computer-use policy. Evidently these students got hold of a password and accessed a staff-only area of the server. "They didn't do any damage or affect any data," says Superintendent Vince Schaefer. They just clicked on something they shouldn't have. In addition to the two-day time-out, these fourteen students lose access to the school's computer resources, In a school running on the governor's fancy laptops, that means two weeks when it will be well-nigh impossible for them to do all the computer-based homework teachers have to give to prove they're using the governor's money wisely. Either that, or teachers will have to spend extra time each day figuring out how to create alternative assignments for the rule-breakers.

Word among the kids is that this password was pretty common knowledge, and that more than the suspended fourteen had it/have it on their fancy laptops from the governor. The administration could dish out more suspensions, but that might mean emptying out the school, so the kids are hearing (and they do hear) that further punishments are unlikely, that the fourteen will be left to stand as an example of how not to use one's mouse. (More input is welcome, especially if anyone has the scoop on just how this password got around.)

When it comes to the classroom, I'm a law-and-order guy. I spent too much time dealing with honyockers (and occasionally some misguided parents) looking to get by with foolishness or get teachers in hot water for their kids' own foolishness to sympathize with rule-breakers. You break the rules, you deserve your punishment, and you have no one to blame but yourself.

The problem I have here is the form the punishment takes. The superintendent himself said the fourteen kids did no damage. They harmed no individual. They simply clicked where they shouldn't have clicked. In response, the school will zero out two days worth of grades and hamstring them for two weeks in their efforts to catch up. On a condensed trimester system, where a course lasts only 12 weeks, or 60 contact days (minus days lost for increased in-service time this year), the loss of those grades can put kids in a hole they won't have time to dig back out of, especially not now in the last third of the current trimester.

Schools do kick kids out, and sometimes denying them access to educational resources and activities is the right choice. But usually suspension or expulsion is dished out when the miscreants' behavior poses a clear and present danger to the proper functioning of the rest of the school. That's a hard standard to define, but kids clicking on a folder -- not maliciously hacking, not introducing viruses into the system, not deleting the gradebooks (if that was even among the files the kids might have accessed) -- doesn't seem to rise to that standard. No damage, the school computer wizard changes the password in 15 seconds, you bust their chops a little (and the chops of whatever meathead wrote the password down on a Post-It note above his desk), and you put the kids back to work.

MDL does not make clear whether the suspensions were conducted in school (ISS) or out of school (OSS). But let's compare the punishments for other violations of the school rules. Here are the punishments for the first, second, and third violations (and fourth, if listed) of certain rules, according to the MHS Student Handbook:

1. Disruptive conduct: 1 detention, 3 detentions, 1 Saturday school, removal from class
2. Drug/alcohol violations: 3 days OSS, 5 days OSS, expulsion
3. Fighting: 3 days OSS, 3-5 days OSS, 5 days OSS and possible expulsion
4. Falsification of notes, etc.: 3 detentions, Saturday school, OSS
5. Gross teacher disrespect: 1 day ISS, 3 days OSS, removal from class
6. Harassment: 1 day ISS, 3 days OSS, 5 days OSS
7. Insubordination: 1 detention, Saturday school, ISS
8. Physical assualt on staff: expulsion (whew!)
9. Porn: 1 detention, 1 day ISS, 3 days OSS
10. Bad Language (cussing, not subject-verb disagreement): 1 detention, 1 day ISS, 3 days OSS
11. Stealing: 3 detentions, Saturday school, 3 days OSS (plus restitution at each level)
12. Threats of physical violence: 1 day ISS, 3 days OSS, 5 days OSS
    
13. Tobacco: 1 day OSS, 3 days OSS (plus additional training rules punishments)
14. Vandalism: 1 day OSS, 3 days OSS plus possible expulsion (plus paying for damage in any instance)
15. Unexcused absence: detention, Saturday school, conference w. principal and parents
    

Highlighted you can see some examples of much clearer harm to person and property that receive less punishment on first and even second offense. In our computer-obsessed society, we seem to put more value on machines than on human values.

Also compare those clear schedules of consequences with the latitude given administrators for punishment of violations of the computer-use policy (District Policy Manual File EHAB):

Violations of the policy will be handled consistent with MCSD disciplinary procedures applicable to the relevant person or persons. MCSD administrators may suspend, block or restrict access to network resources. Student violations may be subject to warnings, suspend, block or restrict access to network resources, detention, and suspension of school activities and/or suspended from school. Teachers and staff members may be subject to warnings, suspend, block or restrict access to network resources and/or employment dismissal. Violations of state and federal laws will result in legal prosecution. Examples of these laws include but not limited to, Cyber Law's, Federal Communities Laws, Federal Wire Tap Laws, Homeland Security Act, National Information Infrastructure Protection Act of 1996, Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, Electronic Communications Privacy Act, Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Individuals violating local, state and federal laws will be subject to disciplinary and/or legal action. Any individual accessing information on external networks, Internet, that is not deemed "educational" for class exercises will be subjected to disciplinary action.

It's not that computers are new and the policy is evolving. We've had widespread computer access in the school system for over a decade. We've had plenty of time to come up with specific punishments. Yet computers are treated like national security issues, with the executive branch given wide latitude to issue any range of unpredictable punishments for even the faintest whiff of a violation.

Teachers and administrators need all the tools and authority we can afford to give them to keep kids in line and make sure education happens. In this situation, though, it appears the school is placing a bit too much emphasis on the sanctity of Governor Rounds's all-holy computers, at the expense of students whose punishment will cause more harm than the victimless keystrokes they committed.