[LM_NET] Cyberthreats -- A matter of grave concern for schools

[Nancy Willard <nwillard@CSRIU.ORG>]

I have been working on issues of cyberbullying and cyberthreats and have
discovered a situation that I believe may present significant danger to the
well-being of students and staff in our schools. I have exercised due
diligence in investigating this issue and do not think I am overstating the
concern.

Fact 1. Several school shooters posted material on the Internet prior to the
school shootings that demonstrated their distressed emotional state and that
if reported and reviewed in the context of a comprehensive threat analysis
would have likely resulted in an assessment of high concern and action. This
includes Eric Harris http://www.thedailycamera.com/shooting/11ashot.html and
Jeff Weise 
http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2005/03/25_bensonl_weise3/.

Fact 2. Students are actively posting material online due to the emergence
social networking sites that provide easy-to-use posting and communications
tools. Some of these postings should be of concern to schools -- including
direct threats, threatening language, statements indicating significant
emotional distress, cyberbullying, suicidal intentions, hate group or gang
activity, and the like. However, it is important to understand that what
first might appear to be an online threat could range from a joke to a
legitimate imminent threat of violence. Also, students are impersonating
other students for purpose of causing trouble to those students.
Comprehensive analysis of the situation is imperative. Do a Google search on
the terms "MySpace, school, threat" and you will see some news reports on
this concern. In most cases, other students will have witnessed concerning
online material. Students and parents should be encouraged to report
concerning online material to safe school personnel.

Fact 3. But if a parent or a student reports to safe school personnel the
presence of concerning material on the Internet, IN MANY SCHOOLS IT IS
PROBABLE THAT THE SAFE SCHOOL OFFICIAL WILL NOT BE ABLE TO IMMEDIATELY
REVIEW THE ONLINE MATERIAL TO DETERMINE THE LEGITIMACY AND EXTENT OF CONCERN
BECAUSE HE OR SHE WILL BE BLOCKED FROM DOING SO BY THE SCHOOL'S INTERNET
FILTERING SYSTEM!

The inability, and perhaps lack of expertise, to rapidly conduct a review of
concerning online material could have grave consequences.  This is a
situation that calls for immediate analysis and change of policy and
procedure in all schools, where appropriate. Ensuring that all safe school
personnel have the authority and capacity to immediately override the school
filter is essential!

Such a change involves technical considerations and policy authorization.

In districts that control their own Internet filtering systems, it should be
relatively easy to provide override capabilities to all safe school
personnel. In schools where the filtering is managed at a consortium level
(regional or state), this capacity may be technically more difficult to
implement -- but it MUST be done.

Districts may fear that school officials with override authority might
engage in inappropriate access. This concern should be dealt with through
monitoring and appropriate consequences -- safe school personnel must have
immediate override authority. The Children's Internet Protection Act does
not prevent the authorization of school officials to override the filter. In
fact, the only reason that the US Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality
of CIPA was the finding that filters could be easily and promptly
overridden. (http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/02pdf/02-361.pdf - read
the concurring opinions of Justices Kennedy and Bryer -- the two swing
votes)

If you are a safe school official who currently does not have the authority
and capacity to override the school's filter and a report has been made to
you about online material that you perceive may be of significant concern
and you cannot get immediate assistance from technical personnel to override
the filter, my recommendation is that you consult with some Internet savvy
students, offer them "immunity from disciplinary action," and ask for their
assistance in finding a proxy to circumvent the filter so that you can
quickly review the material to determine the degree of potential risk. Most
Internet savvy students have no difficulties circumventing the school's
Internet filter. This may violate district policy, but could safe the life
of a child.

It is essential that all school threat assessment and suicide prevention
plans be updated to reflect the reality that students are posting material
related to these concerns online. Even if a report of concern did not
originate online, material could be found online related to such report.
Emotional distress of a student may be demonstrated online or the result of
harm being inflicted by others to that student online.

I have prepared a document that outlines the concerns for educators related
to the new online social networking environments and outlines comprehensive
actions I recommend school officials take to better address these concerns.
This document is on my site at
http://cyberbully.org/docs/youthriskonlinealert.pdf.

Please feel free to forward this message and the document that is on my web
site. I do recognize that in sending this message to all of the individuals
I have is waving a major red flag. If my message has the potential of
resulting in a change in policies and procedures that results in saving the
life of one child, I consider it worth the risk that the recipients of this
message might not consider this issue to be as a grave a concern as I do.

Nancy 

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

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