BLOOMFIELD HILLS, Mich. -- One Bloomfield Hills school is enforcing a new policy that will end the use of a popular Web site on the premises.St. Hugo of the Hills Catholic School students were informed recently that under a new school policy, Think First, Stay Safe, the use of MySpace.com will be prohibited at school and at home.The policy states that students enrolled in the school can't have a MySpace.com account or any similar type of personal site, according to a news release.
"The Internet can be wonderful for educational material, but it also can be unsafe," principal Sr. Margaret Van Velzen said.At the beginning of each school year, students and parents will be required to sign an Internet policy.School officials felt it necessary to apply the new policy after recent cases of adults, some in authoritative positions, posed as minors to converse or meet with young boys and girls.Van Velzen said the decision was made with full support from the school's parents' organization."Ninety-nine-point-nine percent have been very supportive, and I've received many e-mails thanking me," Van Velzen said. "Our parent community is very supportive."
"I think we've got a long way to go because it's a very difficult situation to grasp in its entirety," Lynch said. "There's so many things going on on the Internet and there's so much vulnerability for children."Another St. Hugo parent, Liza Stanczak, said all schools should implement the policy."I think this is just the beginning of schools taking a stand against this kind of thing," Stanczak said. "I think this is going to have to happen because things are getting out of hand."Those students who have existing MySpace.com accounts must delete them if they wish to continue going to school there. Students who do not delete their accounts cannot attend the school, Van Velzen said.The school is hosting a meeting to launch the new policy, Think First, Stay Safe. It will be at 7 p.m. on March 27 in the school Parish Hall.
Goosey's Gabbings...
Ok, so let me get this straight...not only are they limiting what the students can do while at school (which is totally within their right), they are saying that if they have any type of personal account EVEN AT HOME that they cannot go to school there? Where does the line begin and end here? And...how do they plan on enforcing this at home? Do they then get to have all of the students IP addresses? Do they not think that people can circumvent that? Do they plan on the parents policing it, and if they do, will they trust for them to blow the whistle on their own kids?
Sorry folks, but to me, this is a LITTLE too much in terms of "thinking safe". Once again, where is the responsibility the parents should be taking with this? Why not continue to the monitoring of their students with these "posing" and reporting the behavior to the parents? Why not at least put that fear into the students and then go after those that go against the rule--just like any other rule there is? This is a 100% violation of privacy issues here, and I can't help but think that it will cause nothing but resentment and problems from the students there. You've opened up a very large can of worms here....
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