Pandora's Blog

File this one under the “are you serious?!” heading… In my very humble opinion, this sums up EXACTLY everything that is wrong with parents today. The short version: a mom is suing a school that issued laptops to students because her child accessed porno sites and met older men online. Instead of taking responsibility and correcting the situation like a strong parent, she is waging a frivolous lawsuit, in public fashion, against the school for not protecting her kid.

Did you read that last part there… SHE is suing THEM for not protecting HER KID. Ummm…

Just like those weak parents that think monitoring their kids is an invasion of privacy, this mom is blaming the school for her own inability to watch what her child does. The school should be commended for keeping up with technology – it’s bad enough the ACLU already came down on them (read below)… The school is not at fault. At all…

Fortunately, the mom wasn’t clueless and did check her daughter’s email… but to assume the computer your child is using – obtained through a school program – is 100% secure, is just ridiculous. Did she not even check to see what programs were on there (in terms of security and filters)? Did she never wonder how her daughter was accessing the internet (neighbor’s unsecured wi-fi)?

Nothing can be taken at face value today. Especially when it comes to your child’s safety. Obtaining a computer (from a school or buying it at a store) for your child and never checking it out before letting them us it is just pure negligence. Fix your own mistake… don’t publicly blame the school.

She should have had PC Pandora on the machine… but that is a different rant.

Actually, maybe the school – and any other school issuing laptops for that mater – should invest in putting PC Pandora on any school laptops that are issued to students. We will give GREAT discounts to schools!!

September 17, 2009
Mom blames school district for child’s porn site visits
But district says parents are responsible for monitoring home use of school-issued laptops.
By Fermin Leal, The Orange County Register

FULLERTON – A mother is warning against a Fullerton School District laptop program after her sixth-grade daughter used a school-issued MacBook to access pornographic Web sites from home, but the district says oversight responsibility lies with the parents.

The Golden Hill Elementary mother posted an anonymous letter this week on the community blog friendsforfullertonsfuture.org, saying district staff assured parents that Internet safety software and firewalls would keep students in the Laptops for Learning Program away from inappropriate materials.

The woman says her daughter, then 11, accessed a neighbor’s unsecured wireless network from her bedroom around February, visiting chat rooms and “hard core” pornographic Web sites.

“I just want to let parents know that these laptops aren’t safe for students to use,” the mother told the Register today. (The parent asked to remain anonymous to protect her children.)

But Fullerton School District Superintendent Mitch Hovey said it’s unfair to blame the school district.

“I don’t know why this is a school issue,” Hovey said. “The girl used her laptop from her own bedroom and used a neighbor’s unsecured wireless connection to go on those sites. This is a parental supervision issue.”

Hovey said district staff does meet with parents before laptops are issued each year to tell them that software and firewalls offer protection. But they also tell them that ultimately, parents need to regularly monitor what their children do on the computers, he said.

The laptop program
The Laptops for Learning Program started in 2004. Students in participating schools use the computers in lessons in the classroom and take them home to complete assignments. Parents pay $1,500 for the laptops, which they then own. Parents who can’t afford the computers can pay for them over time or have a laptop loaned to them.

In 2006, the American Civil Liberties Union challenged the program, saying it was unconstitutional to ask families to pay for the computers or request a waiver. A settlement requires that schools survey parents to determine if they want to participate. At least 90 percent of parents must support the program.

According to the district’s Web site, Fisler School, Hermosa Drive Elementary, Nicolas Junior High, Parks Junior High and Ladera Vista Junior High are all hosting varying levels of the program.

At Golden Hill Elementary, just over 50 percent of parents voted for the program before the start of this school year, so it was not brought back.

Mom discovered e-mail
The Golden Hill mother said she became suspicious of problems after she logged on the girl’s Yahoo e-mail account and discovered messages from an unknown male calling himself Matt. The e-mails referenced earlier Internet chats with her daughter.

The mother, worried the girl might try to meet the guy, took the computer to the Fullerton Police Department, where investigators found evidence of several visits to pornographic sites. Investigators could not find proof of chats between the girl and the male, Sgt. Mike McDonald said.

“We didn’t find evidence of a crime, so the investigation was closed,” he said.

The mother said she was shocked when police told her about the porn site visits.

“I never expected that my daughter would even be able to access those sites using the computer,” she said.

The mother describes her daughter as a good girl and student who never got into trouble. She said curiosity led her daughter to visit adult sites. The mother said she now keeps the laptop locked away and allows her daughter to only use the family computer in an open area of the home.

Protections in place
Hovey said the school district’s system prevents students from accessing inappropriate sites while they’re at school, including Facebook and Myspace.

Laptops are loaded with software that allows the district to track Web sites students visit outside of school. Those logs are checked periodically, up to several times a week. The superintendent said staff did find logs showing access to inappropriate sites on the Golden Hill student’s computer, but they did not appear until after the parent had already contacted the police, he said.

Police and district officials said this was the first reported case of a student using the laptops to log on to pornographic sites, but the Golden Hill mom said she’s heard from other parents who say they discovered their children visiting adult sites.

Hovey also said the district constantly upgrades security software and takes other measures to ensure safety and virus software is up-to-date.

“We do our best to maintain our system, but parents are told that no system is 100 percent foolproof,” he said.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 24th, 2009 at 4:51 PM and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.