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Nancy Willard nwillard@CSRIU.ORG <mailto:nwillard@CSRIU.ORG>  wrote:

Now here is an interesting story.

Oz students' alleged hate site

It's every school's nightmare these days: a hate site published by students
about their teachers. A state education department in Australia will be
investigating issues surrounding a site that "called for teachers to be
executed, burnt or sent to 'Auschwitz, the Nazi death camp. 'It also called
some teachers 'child molesters'," Australian IT reports ….>>>UNSNIP

Dear All,

Didn’t read any of the online news reports, but the radio news at the time
named one of New South Wales “top” government schools; it is a Selective
High School – I don’t know if you have them in the US, but students are
selected for enrolment on the basis of an optional, external examination
during their final year of primary school (Year 6).  Entry is *very*
competitive.

See: http://www.schools.nsw.edu.au/schoolfind/types/selectiveschools.php for
the official blub.

A colleague (who worked in the school named by the media) stated that
“nearly 100%” of the students undertook extra private tutoring outside
school hours, in order to meet the rigorous academic demands of the school,
and that this was not unique to that particular selective high school; it’s
common in all of them.

Could it be that the problem was not within the school itself, but maybe
with the system?  Or possibly with societal expectations?  We’re talking
kids of age 12 and up … what sort of stress does that type of academic
competitiveness create?

Thoughts from the netters’ collective wisdom?


Amanda Credaro

Editor: Warrior Librarian Weekly
http://www.warriorlibrarian.com <http://www.warriorlibrarian.com/>
Author: Biblia’s Guide to Warrior Librarianship
http://warriorlibrarian.com/buythebook.html
<http://warriorlibrarian.com/buythebook.html>
Day Job: Project Officer – Center for Learning Innovation, OTEN

 E-mail:  amanda.credaro@det.nsw.edu.au
<mailto:amanda.credaro@det.nsw.edu.au>   (work)

            abcredaro@ozemail.com.au <mailto:abcredaro@ozemail.com.au>
(home)




Nancy Willard nwillard@CSRIU.ORG <mailto:nwillard@CSRIU.ORG>  wrote:


Subject: Hate web site aimed at teachers

Now here is an interesting story.

Oz students' alleged hate site

It's every school's nightmare these days: a hate site published by students
about their teachers. A state education department in Australia will be
investigating issues surrounding a site that "called for teachers to be
executed, burnt or sent to 'Auschwitz, the Nazi death camp. 'It also called
some teachers 'child molesters'," Australian IT reports
<http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,10562000%5E15306%5E%5Enbv%
5E,00.html>. The site, alleged to have been created by high school students,
was online for about three days in July before it was shut down. The New
South Wales Education Department will review the suburban Sydney school's
operations, its management, academic results, student welfare, inappropriate
use of the Internet, and discipline.


What I have been saying for a number of years now is that web sites
established by students that target teachers or a school with this kind of
anger should be viewed as a "teachable moment" for the school to see itself
through the eyes of some students. These kinds of sites should be viewed as
"cries for help."

There is something very wrong when a student or students communicate at this
level. That is, I do not believe that happy students who feel supported and
encouraged by the school "community" and their parents would create such a
web site. It is imperative to figure out where things are going wrong -- and
remedy the situation at that level.

It looks like someone at the South Wales Education Department is very
astute.

I am working on professional development materials for educators to address
these kinds of situations. Briefly, steps to follow include:

Save the evidence. Download all pages of the site.

Try to identify the creator(s) of the site, if such information can be
readily ascertained. But take care. A student may be masquerading as another
student.

Conduct a preliminary threat assessment. It is probable that the threat
assessment should be considered preliminary until such time as the
creator(s) of the site are accurately identified.

The threat assessment should allow an administrator to distinguish between
- Legitimate, yet discomfort-provoking, protest speech that is challenging
authority.
- Speech that is truly harmful to the school or a staff member, such as
defamation or invasion of privacy.
- Speech that constitutes a material or substantial threat of disruption or
violence at school.

Based on the conclusions of that threat assessment, decide whether or not to
contact law enforcement. If the perpetrator is unknown, it would likely be
better to err on the side of contacting law enforcement. These folks are
likely better able to identify the perpetrator.

If the site is truly harmful or a threat, take steps to remove the site.
This usually will simply require a contact to the web host because such
sites are almost always in violation of the web host's terms and conditions.

In the US, if this site were created off-campus, school officials could only
intervene with discipline if there was a substantial and material threat of
disruption at school. This is the free speech legal standard. There have not
been any cases that evaluate free speech issues in the context os school
safety threat analysis.



--
Nancy Willard, M.S., J.D.
Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use
http://csriu.org
nwillard@csriu.org


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