Technology seminar keeps students safe
Sanders County Sheriff's deputy Chris McGuigen explains the legal ramifications of spreading offensive or sexually explicit materials via the internet or cell phone.
Plains school counselor Kevin Meredith instructs junior class members about safeguarding themselves from the potentially dangerous effects sharing personal information through the internet or text messaging.
In recent years, public schools have assumed responsibility not only to teach students reading, writing and math skills, but have also tackled issues like drug and alcohol use, safe sex, and now in 2011, even cyber safety.
It was to that end, that Plains High school joined several area schools in providing a seminar on appropriate and safe use of technology last Thursday.
“I don’t want any of my students to come out of here with a casual understanding of technology and become a victim because they didn’t think it through,” Plains schools superindentant Thom Chisholm said. “They need to know that their technology puts them in a situation that jeopardizes aspects of their lives later on.”
Although internet and cell phone technology have improved our standard of living by making the instant and global sharing of information possible, they have also have made social networking sites and chat rooms every bit as dangerous to students as tobacco marketing campaigns targeted at teens and peer pressure to engage in underage drinking and promiscuity.
On Thursday, each class, freshman through seniors, sat through the seminar provided by Plains School Counselor Kevin Meredith and Sanders County Deputy Chris McGuigan.
Terms like cyber-bullying (using technology to intimidate, threaten or harass) and sexting (sending sexual messages or sexually explicit photos via cell phone) were defined as Meredith explained the dangers of releasing personal information onto the internet while McGuigan laid out the potential legal ramifications introduced by new technologies.
According to McGuigan, the seminar was in part inspired by a high school student in Missoula who recently committed suicide after embarassing photos of her were spread via cell phone throughout the school.
In that particular case, criminal charges are pending on many of the students who passed along the photograph via text message or email.
“Anything that affects a students ability to learn or affects the effective environment of the school, even if it happens outside of a school setting, we still have the authority to deal with that,” Chisholm said.
“One kid makes a comment and now it has a chance to snowball much faster,” Chisholm added. “If they participate in that they can become a perpetrator of a crime and they’re good kids. We don’t want them to find themselves in that situation.”
To avoid moral and legal problems, students were instructed, among other things, never to pass on hurtful or offensive texts, emails, or photos and never to take someone’s photograph without their consent.
Just like other forms of harassment, it’s the receivers reaction, not the senders intent that defines when a problem has occurred so students were told to use their best judgement when deciding what to share and what to delete.
Also, students were cautioned not to post personal or sensitive information or photographs to social networking sites like facebook or myspace, because once information is published on the internet, it’s nearly impossible to track.
To ensure their own safety, students were warned to always sign out of computers profiles, and to monitor who is allowed to use their phone and computer.
McGuigen said that although embarrassing moments in the locker room or at sleepovers used to be more or less contained to the setting in which they occured, mobile phones and camera technology have allowed the rumor mill to start in a hurry.
In Plains schools, technology seminars are sprinkled throughout the curriculum beginning as early as third grade, with age-appropriate themes.
“There’s posters, there’s presentations, it’s part of the elementary school curriculum,” Chisholm said. “It’s not necessarily the same curriculum k-12, but we have worked all the way down into the lower elementary grades to educate the students about bullying through a variety of means.”
Chisholm was impressed with the efforts of Elementary Principal Jim Holland, Meredeth, McGuigen, who volunteered his time to speak with students, and everyone who helped make the seminar happen. He added that pending student responses, a seminar for adults may be offered in the future.