Parents: Don’t sign those forms releasing the School Boards of their responsibility to keep your children safe online!

August 8, 2013
Re: The Challenge of keeping kids safe on the web by Sandy Garossino
http://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/op-ed/comment-the-challenge-of-keeping-kids-safe-on-the-web-1.572317

Parents: Don’t sign those forms releasing the School Boards of their responsibility to keep your children safe online! 

Since the mandatory exposure to WiFi that has been installed in all the schools from Kindergarten to Grade 12 parents don’t seem to be aware that their children can be exposed to pornography, child predators, animal cruelty, sexting, bullying, etc from the unregulated use of wireless Internet. Children can be tracked down and located with their wireless devices and online information.  How can a teacher be expected to supervise a classroom full of children who have brought in their own devices to use 6 hours a day, 5 days a week with unlimited use of the wireless Internet in our schools and still teach the daily curriculum?

Parents are now being asked to sign a release form to release the Schools of any responsibility of offensive and inappropriate material being downloaded from the wireless Internet onto children’s wireless devices.

Is this part of the BC Education Plan for 21st Century Learning?

One sample of School Release Forms
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4616169/SD61-Glanford/Surrey-device-policy.pdf

Here is a story submitted by a grade 7 teacher:

I am sorry to report that a personal story supports your fears - I am a gr.7 teacher - during the last week of school we took our children to a documentary science film. Since our Board has the BYOD (bring your own device policy) children were allowed to have their personal devices on their being.  During the film a boy was using his device to show a porn photo to the girl beside him. Following the film - I searched the theatre to ensure no personal belongings were left behind and found an Iphone on the floor. A tech savy teacher searched the phone for the owners identify and found a wallpaper of porn. It was the owner of this phone that was sending it to the other boy in the theatre during the documentary. Upon return to school, the children and teachers involved went to the Principal. The result: the children's parents were called - and the teacher was reprimanded for invading the child`s privacy! ...it is out of control.

Janis Hoffmann