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This is a resend of the message I mistakenly sent yesterday (pushed send
later, instead of save -- so, OK, I have 2 kids at home, no summer camps,
and school does not start until the 8th, so I am not focusing as well as I
could be. ;-) ) This guidance is really more directed at the administrator
level. But since librarians are very involved with Internet issues, I
figured sending this to LM-Net could get the word out. Please feel free to
forward.

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.

All this being said, if there are threats involved, then it is necessary to
do a threat analysis to make an appropriate determination of how to respond.

I am working on professional development materials for educators to address
cyberbullying.  One of the issues I am addressing in threat assessment. If
efforts to address cyberbullying are undertaken, it is highly likely that
school administrators will receive more information about online
communications or web postings that involve threatening language.

 Briefly, steps I am recommending (which may be modified as I continue my
analysis of this) include:

- Save the evidence. Download all pages of the site or save all
communications.

- 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. It also may not be possible to rapidly identify the creator(s) and
it may be necessary to move to the threat assessment without such
identification.

- 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 and there is a
moderate threat, it would likely be better to err on the side of contacting
law enforcement. These folks are likely better able to identify the
perpetrator. Obviously, if there is any level of significant concern, the
law enforcement folks should be contacted.

In the US, if web sites are created off-campus, school officials can only
intervene with discipline if there is 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 of school
safety threat analysis. But I am supposing that these two standards would be
pretty similar. So instead of the school officials responding with
discipline, there would be a law enforcement response. (But I am still
thinking about this issue.)

- If the site is truly harmful or a threat, the school or law enforcement
folks should 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.

_ If the site is harmful to school staff, that is, if the site materials
meet the legal standards for defamation, invasion of privacy, or intentional
infliction of emotional distress, school staff can be advised of the
possibility that they could file a civil lawsuit against the parents of the
creator(s) of the site for the damages incurred.

However, in such cases, it is also important to look at the dynamics of the
relationship between the student and the staff member. Not all teachers are
the wonderful, supportive, competent teachers we all would want for our
children. Has the staff member been acting in ways that have been injuring
this student?

- If the site is primarily discomfort-producing protest speech, the site can
provide insight into the operations of the school and should be reviewed in
this context. Insightful administrators could perhaps pull together a
committee of students and staff to address concerns that have been raised.

I guess I can also give you a sneak preview of my site. There are still some
graphics issues I need to deal with, and some more stuff I am working on.
But you can preview at http://cyberbully.org.

Nancy

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

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