76 lines
5.6 KiB
Plaintext
76 lines
5.6 KiB
Plaintext
If you're currently an adult, imagine being back in high school. Imagine sitting
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in your calculus class; your teacher has finished the lecture, and you, along with the
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rest of the class are impatiently waiting for the second period bell to ring. The door
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creaks open and the Vice Principal steps in. With tight methodical precision he hands
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your teacher a note and asks you to come with him. A curt "yes" is all you can utter
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as you get up to follow him. You stare straight ahead with military obedience as you
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walk behind the man who holds your future in his hands. He enters his sterile office
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and you follow, closing the door behind him. "Sit down, " he commands.
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You obey.
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"Where were you during your flex block on December, 18, 2003?"
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You know an interrogation has begun. "I was probably in the library, ummm media center,"
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you blurt out, but you understand perfectly well that the school administration already
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knows where you were, what you were doing, and probably even how your punishment
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will play out. The questions continue; all of them are short and reveal as little
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information as possible. You go on to describe how you spoke with another student in
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the computer lab at that date. You explain the subject matter that you and he
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discussed. The school administration has enough information now to prove your
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guilt. You are handed a form detailing the incident that you had just spoken of. You
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fill it out and give as much detail as you can, thinking that if you are frank and honest
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with the administration, you will get some level of respect in return. The pattern of
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questioning, documenting, and signing, repeats for another few hours.
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This was the situation I found myself in a few weeks ago at my ex-school, Dundee
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Crown. In the interrogation, I explained that at one point I had entered the file://
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command into a web browser, and this violated an oral agreement I made with the Vice
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Principal stating that I would not use a computer network while at school ( I had been
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banned from the network because I'd downloaded an SSH client at the beginning of
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the year. That was a violation of the network user agreement). I discussed 802.11x
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networking in response to the school's confiscation of my keychain wifi scanner.
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Typing a command into a computer when told not to and possessing an unauthorized
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electronic device are minor infractions of the school rules. However, at the end of the
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discussion the VP told me that I would be suspended for ten days. Ten days happens
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to be the maximum suspension in my school district. Even if a student commits a
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violent crime at school, 10 days suspension with a recommended expulsion will still
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be the maximum punishment. I am also told that I will have the opportunity to speak
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before the school board at a hearing dealing with my expulsion. The Vice Principal
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goes on to say that the main issue is not that I had touched a computer when I had
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promised not to, or that I had used a wifi detector. In fact no action would be taken
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against me regarding those incidents. My real crime, according to the Vice Principle,
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was what I had told the other student. Apparently I can be expelled from school for
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speaking about certain things.
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Up to this point, I hope anyone reading this will see the utter absurdity of this
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whole situation. Public schools have become a holding pen for those too young to work.
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Security cameras dot the halls, police officers prowl like hungry pigs, and the student
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handbook bans such things as "unauthorized reading material." Personal and intellectual
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freedoms are suppressed to an extent that the student body has for the most part
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given in to either a drug induced apathy, or an artificial happy obedience.
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Dundee crown has a web filter. I do not appreciate this. When I
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had been talking with that student in flex block on 12-18-2003, I was trying to find
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out what sites he could get to using a web proxy. The proxy was one I hosted at my
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house and I intended to use it as a means of bypassing the school's filter. With all of
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my school's clear problems, why did I focus on combating censorship of the Internet?
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Probably because I saw freedom of information as the main source of social progress,
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because essays from noted libertarians like Herbert Marcuse, Eric Raymond, and
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Noam Chomsky were some of the material the school had been censoring, and I saw
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real change potentially locked away in words the school library wouldn't stock.
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The real question comes down to this. If I make a proxy on my own computer,
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at my own home, outside of the schools jurisdiction, and if I use my free speech
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rights to talk about that proxy with another student, can the school, interrogate,
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suspend, and expel me? Censoring the web in a place of public education is wrong.
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Expelling students who speak out is unconstitutional. Help! I have served the
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suspension, and took part in an expulsion hearing where I was not even
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told what specific violation of school policy I had made. Recently, I transfered
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to a private school. I am expressing my views on this issue in the hopes that it
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will bring up a discussion of the role of freedom of information for minors. Please
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contact me at the1@unixclan.net if you think your ideas will be of aid to me or the
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students at my school district.
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