640 high school students in a Pennsylvania school were issued Apple laptop computers estimated to cost the state close to $850,000 in a four year time frame.
13 students now known as the "Kutztown 13" (ages 14-17) have been busted for misuse. The Kutztown Area School District has turned it over to police after trying suspensions, detentions, and other forms of punishment and failing. They're charged with computer trespass and court is scheduled for Aug 24th.
The students were able to get unrestricted internet access using the administrator password. The password wasn't meant to be distributed, but was reported as being taped on the back of some computers. So, with their read hacking skills they were able to crack it lol
. Once unrestricted they began downloading chat programs and at least one surfing porn.
Some parents are upset at how far this is being taken, but the school district laid it all out in the policies and guidelines the students signed when taking the systems in the first place.
It's clear they want a zero tolerance policy to breaking the rules to make the move to notebooks work. Are the students too young to be even attempting this? Some feel it's the parents not passing on any level of responsibility giving some kids the feeling of they can do anything they want and others will just have to deal with it. Without a doubt most future jobs and tasks in life are going to require more use of computers vs a pen and paper, so the more experience the better to prepare them... it's just a matter how what time is right and how exactly to introduce computers as more of a tool with studies.
The students are firing back trying to gather support through a website:
http://www.cutusabreak.org/
We were not able to find any reports on how many of the other hundreds of students with these issued notebooks have had any misuse problems.
*Updated 8-26-05*
A deal was made with all charges dropped in exchange for 15 hours of community service, a letter of apology, a class on personal responsibility and a few months of probation.
13 students now known as the "Kutztown 13" (ages 14-17) have been busted for misuse. The Kutztown Area School District has turned it over to police after trying suspensions, detentions, and other forms of punishment and failing. They're charged with computer trespass and court is scheduled for Aug 24th.
The students were able to get unrestricted internet access using the administrator password. The password wasn't meant to be distributed, but was reported as being taped on the back of some computers. So, with their read hacking skills they were able to crack it lol
. Once unrestricted they began downloading chat programs and at least one surfing porn.Some parents are upset at how far this is being taken, but the school district laid it all out in the policies and guidelines the students signed when taking the systems in the first place.
It's clear they want a zero tolerance policy to breaking the rules to make the move to notebooks work. Are the students too young to be even attempting this? Some feel it's the parents not passing on any level of responsibility giving some kids the feeling of they can do anything they want and others will just have to deal with it. Without a doubt most future jobs and tasks in life are going to require more use of computers vs a pen and paper, so the more experience the better to prepare them... it's just a matter how what time is right and how exactly to introduce computers as more of a tool with studies.
The students are firing back trying to gather support through a website:
http://www.cutusabreak.org/
We were not able to find any reports on how many of the other hundreds of students with these issued notebooks have had any misuse problems.
*Updated 8-26-05*
A deal was made with all charges dropped in exchange for 15 hours of community service, a letter of apology, a class on personal responsibility and a few months of probation.
on a networked drive where everybody can see if you know where to look.
needless to say I still bring my Dell and Sager in on a regular basis, but the older generation really needs to wake up and stop thinking they're so friggin superior.
Our school has blocked all attempts to type addresses to any folder in the address bar. You can't type c: or z: (our allocated network drive, each student has there own that is mapped to z: at logon), or the location of a network share in the address bar with out the "Administrator cancelled" error.
and was one of very few nerdy geeks there 
