'Show Me' Your Facebook Friends, Internet Filters
EDUCATION WEEK
August 6, 2011 12:05 AM
By Ian Quillen
A recently passed Missouri law that restricts social networking relationships between teachers and students—even long after that student has left the classroom—is making local and national headlines.
The Huffington Post is reporting that the law, which was passed in mid July but has gained national attention this week, was created to ensure administrators and parents can monitor communication and prevent situations that may put students at risk, but not to prevent social networking between teachers and students on public sites like Facebook and Twitter. Yet some fear it will prevent just that, and our own Facebook research (meta much?) shows you all are divided on whether such interaction is appropriate.
The Kansas City Star says teachers are up in arms about a law they say over-reaches its intended purpose. And the Christian Science Monitor asks if it could prevent teachers from embracing the very tools that have been promoted as crucial to creating modern classrooms.
Despite the length of the document, formally named The Amy Hestir Student Protection Act after a woman who was repeatedly sexually assaulted by a middle school teacher, the Huffington Post says its essence boils down to these two paragraphs:
No teacher shall establish, maintain, or use a work-related internet site unless such site is available to school administrators and the child's legal custodian, physical custodian, or legal guardian.
No teacher shall establish, maintain, or use a nonwork-related internet site which allows exclusive access with a current or former student.
This isn't the first and won't be the last regulation restricting social networking use in an educational content, though it may be the first to do so on a statewide level. (If you know of others, we'd love to hear about them). But I can't recall one I've seen that goes so far as to prevent relationships into the indefinite future. According to my understanding, the law could so far as to outlaw a private virtual relationship between a teacher and a student who may have long since grown up and joined adulthood. (I'm proud to call old teachers like Mr. Bock, Mr. Mick, Mr. Himes, and Mr. Raygor Facebook friends, though Mr. Raygor's football rants need to stop.)
It's important to note that the law makes a differentiation between work- and nonwork-related sites. In other words, a teacher would presumably be allowed to run a class website, or even operate a class forum in a public website, so long as that site is accessible to anyone who wishes to use it, including administrators and parents.
That's actually less draconian than some recently passed restrictions, including one in the 130,000-student Prince George's County (Md.) school district that bans the posting of any school-related photos by students on public social networking sites. But the toughest part for educators to swallow may be that it takes control away from local districts, who are being pushed to take ownership of their own Web policy by ed-tech advocates.
Filtering Folley
Meanwhile, the Missouri Research & Education Network, or MOREnet, a statewide consortium that includes filtering software among the services it provides to about 100 districts, said it will deactivate a feature that had blocked non-sexual content geared toward the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) communities, according to a press release from the ACLU.
This is the first news in a while from the ACLU's national "Don't Filter Me" campaign, a letter-writing effort that threatens legal action against districts who block non-sexual LGBT content, based on the assertion that access to such content for should LGBT allies groups must be permitted based on the federal Equal Access Act.
And it illustrates that, just because filters can appear to be blocking material based on a political or social slant, it may not always be intentional. In this case, the Netsweeper filter provided by MOREnet had the option to filter for a category called "alternative lifestyles" that not only blocked sites supporting LGBT rights and education, but also those aimed at vegetarians and vegans.
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The Art of SETTING LIMITS, Its not as easy as it looks.
Art of Setting Limits Setting limits is one of the most powerful tools that professionals have to promote positive behavior change for their clients, students, residents, patients, etc. Knowing there are limits on their behavior helps the individuals in your charge to feel safe. It also helps them learn to make appropriate choices.
There are many ways to go about setting limits, but staff members who use these techniques must keep three things in mind:
Setting a limit is not the same as issuing an ultimatum.
Limits aren’t threats—If you don’t attend group, your weekend privileges will be suspended.
Limits offer choices with consequences—If you attend group and follow the other steps in your plan, you’ll be able to attend all of the special activities this weekend. If you don’t attend group, then you’ll have to stay behind. It’s your decision.
The purpose of limits is to teach, not to punish.
Through limits, people begin to understand that their actions, positive or negative, result in predictable consequences. By giving such choices and consequences, staff members provide a structure for good decision making.
Setting limits is more about listening than talking.
Taking the time to really listen to those in your charge will help you better understand their thoughts and feelings. By listening, you will learn more about what’s important to them, and that will help you set more meaningful limits.
Download The Art of Setting Limits
SYSTEMATIC USE OF CHILD LABOR
CHILD DOMESTIC HELP
by Amanda Kloer
Published February 21, 2010 @ 09:00AM PT
category: Child Labor
Wanted: Domestic worker. Must be willing to cook, clean, work with garbage, and do all other chores as assigned. No contract available, payment based on employer's mood or current financial situation. No days off. Violence, rape, and sexual harassment may be part of the job.
Would you take that job? No way. But for thousands of child domestic workers in Indonesia, this ad doesn't just describe their job, it describes their life.
A recent CARE International survey of over 200 child domestic workers in Indonesia found that 90% of them didn't have a contract with their employer, and thus no way to legally guarantee them a fair wage (or any wage at all) for their work. 65% of them had never had a day off in their whole employment, and 12% had experienced violence. Child domestic workers remain one of the most vulnerable populations to human trafficking and exploitation. And while work and life may look a little grim for the kids who answered CARE's survey, it's likely that the most abused and exploited domestic workers didn't even have the opportunity to take the survey.
In part, child domestic workers have it so much harder than adults because the people who hire children are more likely looking for someone easy to exploit. Think about it -- if you wanted to hire a domestic worker, wouldn't you choose an adult with a stronger body and more life experience to lift and haul and cook than a kid? If you could get them both for the same price, of course you would. But what if the kid was cheaper, free even, because you knew she wouldn't try and leave if you stopped paying her. Or even if you threatened her with death.
Congress Aims to Improve Laws for Runaway, Prostituted Kids
by Amanda Kloercategories: Child Prostitution, Pimping
Published February 20, 2010 @ 09:00AM PT
The prospects for healthcare reform may be chillier than DC weather, but Democrats in the House and Senate are turning their attention to another warmer but still significant national issue: the increasing number of runaway and throwaway youth who are being forced into prostitution. In response to the growing concerns that desperate, runaway teens will be forced into prostitution in a sluggish economy, Congress is pushing several bills to improve how runaway kids are tracked by the police, fund crucial social services, and prevent teens from being caught in sex trafficking. Here's the gist of what the new legislation is trying to accomplish:Shelter: Lack of shelter is one of the biggest vulnerabilities of runaway and homeless youth. Pimps will often use an offer of shelter as an entree to a relationship with a child or a straight up trade for sex. In the past couple years, at least 10 states have made legislative efforts to increase the number of shelters, extend shelter options, and change state reporting requirements so that youth shelters have enough time to win trust and provide services before they need to report the runaways to the police. Much of the new federal legislation would make similar increases in the availability and flexibility of shelter options.
Police Reporting: Right now, police are supposed to enter all missing persons into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database within two hours of receiving the case. In reality, that reporting doesn't always get done, making it almost impossible for law enforcement to search for missing kids across districts. This hole is a big problem in finding child prostitution victims and their pimps, since pimps will often transport girls from state to state. The new bill would strengthen reporting requirements, as well as facilitate communication between the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the National Runaway Switchboard
We Must Never Forget These Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen and Women
Nor the Fool Politicians that used so many American GIs' lives as fodder for the fight over an english noun - "Communism"
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