Safety An Important Part Of Mixing Media And Education
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David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
Part III: Safety Online Along with their many other duties, school corporation teachers and staff must work to ensure that its students are safe – off and online.
Two days a year at the Warsaw Area Career Center, Warsaw Community Schools Superintendent Dr. Craig Hintz teaches on planning and careers through Sandy Carmichael’s class.
“For the past couple of years, I’ve advised our freshman students that as they work to achieve their dreams and someday they are in a position to apply for a job, you may have your perspective employer make a request of you to be your friend on Facebook®,” Hintz said. “And my guidance to our students is to use really good judgment when they are posting information on Facebook or Twitter, because we know today perspective employers are asking to friend them on Facebook to really see how they interact with others in a digital world.”
Chief Technology Officer Brad Hagg for WCS said, “We know for sure that Facebook does sell information to companies that they have a relationship with. Even items that people may post, thinking that they’re just posting between friends or they’ve shut off public access to their site, the user agreement for Facebook indicates Facebook can distribute that information as it sees fit.
“In some cases I am well aware that they’ve distributed that information without people’s knowledge and then it’s come back to bite them during a job interview,” Hagg said.
Once information is out there, even if it’s deleted, Hagg said, that doesn’t mean it disappears forever. There are ways to go back and see previous information posted on the Internet.
“Companies that want to be diligent about the people they hire and the resources they use will use techniques to find out everything they can about a person they are looking to hire. It’s important to stay safe from the onset instead of repair damage that’s already been done” Hagg said.
As part of their activities, the Peers group at Tippecanoe Valley High School goes to the lower-grade schools and teaches them about Internet safety.
Tippecanoe Valley Middle School Principal and former Akron Elementary School Principal Blaine Conley said, “I think the Peers group at the high school coming down to the elementary probably the last four years and talking to kids about digital citizenship, appropriate sites ... they’ve laid a great foundation for our elementary kids as they’ve moved into the middle school.”
Kayla Rassi, Tippecanoe Valley technology director, said, “There’s a lot of free content as far as digital citizenship that we can look at and implement at all levels. Really, as we move forward, this is really something we’re taking in stride. There are a lot of schools that already have that in place that we’re just kind of take a look at what they’re using to create a model for us.”
At the sixth-grade level, Conley said, students have a computer class where there’s information and lessons provided about the appropriate uses of the Internet.
Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Department Detective Sgt. J.D. Ayres said a lot of the casework involving social media the sheriff’s department deals with is people hacking into someone else’s Facebook or Twitter accounts. They don’t deal with a lot of criminal cases involving social media, though it does go on.
Ayres said parents should pay attention to their kids’ social media as he does his. Be friends with them on their social media and monitor their accounts. They should know what their kids are putting out there, he said.
Kids don’t always use common sense when they put stuff online, but you never know what’s on the other side, he said.
“I think it’s always important parents know what sites their kids are on,” said Kirk Doehrmann, Tippecanoe Valley High School principal. “What type of social media their kids are using. It really is important they educate themselves on how to use that because there are so many things that are easy to hide. And if kids can find a way to get around things, they will do it. It’s important for parents to have those conversations with their kids about what is appropriate, what isn’t appropriate.”
As for schools, Ayres said the ones he deals with do a good job of monitoring students.
When something is sent out through cyberspace, Ayres said there’s no way to take it back, whether that’s text or pictures.
And now there are cameras everywhere and everyone seems to have one on their cell phones, Ayres said. Because of that, he encouraged people to be careful because they can easily be caught doing something that at the time they may have thought was funny but can get them into trouble later.
Chad Hill, KCSD public information officer, said photos today are better than they were two years ago. Even the KCSD has a department policy now on social media that nothing should be posted which could be considered detrimental to the department’s image.
That’s not to say all social media is bad, Ayres said. It can be a helpful thing. Lost people can be found, and law enforcement agents can contact directly to each other, he said. People have to weigh the benefits versus the costs though, he said.
“You don’t want to put yourself in harm’s way,” Ayres said. “You have to weigh the outcome.”
Hill said law enforcement uses social media like Facebook to do background checks. It can be used to tell where a person’s favorite spots are, who they hang out with or provide other information police can use.
