Site for anonymous bullying reporting

Given the recent UCLA report on young people's reticence in reporting cyberbullying (see this), this is an interesting concept: a Web site that allows students to report said anonymously. So far the Utah-Based site, SchoolTipline.com, is being used by "six Utah schools and 48 schools in other states," the Salt Lake Tribune reports. The only concern is that the site could also be abused. Given also what we know of how kids have been known to abuse abuse-reporting in kid virtual worlds (see "Top 8 workarounds of kid virtual-world users"). An apparent protection against this possibility is that the tips go right to administrators of the schools that have signed on. One administrator told the Tribune she's received 20 reports so far this year, one of which was false. "Often [the administrators] respond to the anonymous student online and ask for more details. Sometimes they can persuade the student to come forward and work with them. At the very least, if the student doesn't want to be identified, school officials can question the alleged bully or keep an eye on the situation." Hmm, the thought occurs: what impact would age verification of minors have on this process?

Federal judge allows students' suspension

The 10-day suspension of two eighth-graders in Pennsylvania school was in response to their creation of an imposter MySpace profile representing their principal "as a pedophile and a sex addict, among other things," ArsTechnica.com reports. In its coverage of the ruling, the Student Press Law Center reports that US District Judge James "wrote in his opinion that the arguments fell into three categories: 1) Were Snyders’ First Amendment rights violated by the school?; 2) Were the district’s policies unconstitutionally vague and overbroad?; 3) And did the school violate the Snyder’s parental rights?" He answered all three in the negative, saying the oft-used Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District was about the censoring of political speech not the "lewd and vulgar" speech in the fake profile. "Munley instead analyzed Snyder’s speech under three different student speech rulings by the US Supreme Court," according to the Student Press Law Center, in particular "Bethel School District v. Fraser, which said public schools could 'prohibit the use of vulgar and offensive terms in public discourse" and "Hazlewood School District v. Kuhlmeier, which said 'educators do not offend the First Amendment by exercising editorial control over the style and content of speech so long as their actions are reasonably related to legitimate, pedagogical concerns.” An attorney for the ACLU said the judge "failed to recognize that a school cannot restrict a student's speech 'anywhere it is uttered' simply because it's vulgar and targets a school official."

Classroom surfing ban?

This isn't totally on-topic (kid-tech news), because it's primarily about adults: college students' in-class surfing habits, from a professors slightly angst-ridden perspective. But it could be on the horizon of high school teachers and students too. "I should be clear that there is no good a priori argument against multitasking. The case is at best an empirically-informed hunch about what is the best way to teach. I see some power to a parentalism argument that teachers should ban surfing because it impedes students’ ability to learn," blogs Yale law professor Ian Ayres. But, hey, he offers some good reasons. "Surfing and game playing in particular can be very distracting - both visually and in the signal they send to others that you don’t care about class." Do law professors always state the obvious?: "Multitasking also makes students less present as participants in class discussion. Surfing doesn’t stop students from taking notes, but it degrades the quality of their attention." The there's just one problem: "There is a growing sense of entitlement not just to surf but to keep your professor in the dark about whether you are surfing or not."

Virginia's Net-safety first

Virginia is the first US state to require online-safety instruction in its public schools, reports WDBJ 7 TV News in Richmond. The mandate "initially stemmed from concerns about sex offenders preying on children online and a general increase in Internet-based crime." Instruction has already begun. The Associated Press reports that, "nationally, Texas and Illinois are among states that have since passed their own Internet safety education laws, but unlike Virginia they don't make the courses mandatory. It took effect this school year.

Oxford fined Facebook users

The age-old UK university's disciplinarians - the proctors - are cracking down on an ancient tradition using Facebook against its Oxford student users. The tradition is called "trashing," whereby students douse each other with stuff like champagne, shaving foam, and flour to celebration completion of exams, The Times reports. "Staff at Oxford University are searching [Facebook], collecting photographs of students who they say have broken rules on post-examination celebrations, and handing down fines." The student union, in turn, called the move a "disgraceful” invasion of students' privacy "and has emailed every common room advising how to prevent [proctors from] viewing the photographs." The students are getting fined around 70 pounds, about $143, after "residents and police complained that the clean-up bill ran into thousands of pounds," although The Times reported several years ago that fines have done "nothing to prevent exuberance." Here's some coverage from this side of the pond at InformationWeek. In related news, CNET describes "the latest unpopular Facebook move."

How dissed superintendent handled it

It looks like students and a lot of adults in Saline, Michigan, have had some healthy debate this week about online vs. offline behavior and free speech. After high school students “used harsh language to ridicule Saline Area Schools Superintendent Beverley Geltner,” the Ann Arbor News reports, the superintendent met individually with the students and their parents, then held a meeting last night of about 100 students and parents to discuss the students’ postings. Nobody was suspended, Ms. Geltner said, but she held meetings “to address the ‘limited understanding’ that parents and young people have about the dangers of Internet postings,” the News reports in a separate article. At least one student learned that what he posted in Facebook wasn’t necessarily going to be seen only by the group. Geltner reportedly was both criticized and supported for the way she handled the incident, but if something was learned about behavior and repercussions on the social Web, and maybe a little about ethics and free speech, I think she handled it as well as possible. Note what a Philadelphia dean of students Mark Franek wrote in Educational Leadership: “Behaviors in cyberspace (yes, words are deeds) are downloadable, printable, and sometimes punishable by law. Students need to hear this message, starting in upper elementary school” (archived in Franek’s blog).