Reason 182 to HomeSchool: Your 11 Year Old Won’t Go to Jail for Googling “Lesbian”
This is another case of stupid “zero tolerance” polices run amok. Some boys Googled a common English word that should have been filtered by the school’s content filters and viewed the resulting pictures. That word was “lesbian,” a word that many schools have been forbidden to block by gay rights groups. The pictures that came with the search results caused the boys to be charged with distributing pornography to minors. Now the kids face a long process through the criminal justice system instead of the slap on the wrist they should have received.
From the SaltLake Trib here with thanks to Bryan:
Two fifth-graders could face criminal charges for looking at pornography on a school computer, but some people are wondering how they were able to access the images in the first place.
Police were called last week after two 11-year-old boys at Forbes Elementary School pulled up images of sexual acts on a school computer and then showed the pictures to nine other students. The incident came to light when one child told a parent and another told the principal.
Police called the images “pretty explicit” but declined to elaborate. He said the boys made multiple attempts on different days to access inappropriate material. Ultimately, they typed the word “lesbian” into a search engine and were able to pull up pictures not blocked by the school’s Internet filter.
The school suspended the boys for two days. They could face charges in juvenile court of dealing in material harmful to a minor or lesser charges for viewing pornography at school, or be referred to the probation department instead of going to court, among other possibilities. If they are adjudicated in juvenile court, consequences range from community service to serving time in a juvenile detention facility.
Rhonda Bromley, Alpine School District spokeswoman, said district officials decided to involve police based on the seriousness of the case.
“The bottom line is, because of the age it’s obviously a sensitive thing, but what they did was inappropriate, and it was wrong, so as educators and a society hopefully we need to help them learn that,” Bromley said. “It’s a little disappointing to hear people say, “Boys will be boys.’ … I don’t know what the magic age is when people can stop saying ‘Well, boys will be boys.'”
But some say it was the school’s responsibility to make sure inappropriate material was blocked from classroom computers, and the students shouldn’t face criminal charges.
Hear that homosexuals? The stuff you do is so bad it damages minors just by looking at it. Also, what kind of iron bitch is Rhonda Bromley? Her school’s cyber policy is obviously flawed. Shouldn’t she go to jail for failing to protect minors from the harmful visual images of the internets? Just suspend the children for violating the acceptable usage policy, adjust your content filters and move on.
Another case of zero tolerance taken too far involves banning neck scarves in the middle of winter here.
Like I said before, lawsuit time. All the parents of these kids have to do is say “My poor lil boy saw images that will haunt him for years becaue the schools filters didn’t block them” and the judge will have to side with them. Doesn’t have to be true, just has to be said.
Endersdragon, you are right about this, but I hope that parents won’t sue over it. Simply demanding that the filters work and ensuring that it does would be sufficient. I feel much worse for the boys who accessed this material originally. A big over-reaction like this could do far worse to them psychologically- overwhelming shame and accusations and the criminal prosecution is uncalled-for. I think the real lawsuit could be filed by the parents of these children.
And don’t you think the teacher who called the police in this case is the real bully?