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Your (kids') schools are run by idiots, facsists, and maybe pedophiles.
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What amazes me about this is that it likely betrays a shocking lack of knowledge about drugs. Often people down several Mike & Ike's at a time. I don't know of any drug where a person who isn't planning on killing themselves dumps a handful of pills into their hand, downs them, and then goes and does the same thing again, because hey, they've got a whole six ounce box of drugs to plow through.
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So does that mean that you DO expect something to come of this?
Since, you know, they found in favor of the student, and all...
I think it largely depended on where you were. My school did plenty of idiotic things* but I graduated in 2000 and the most onerous thing we had was an old lady with a clipboard was added at the front door to make people who were late sign in. I even did my Academic Decathlon speech on how silly policies like that (and the more draconian) were ("Administrative staff born before World War II and armed only with paperwork are ill-suited at preventing crazed teen gunmen from trying to enact the kind of mass shooting the events in Columbine have fixed so strongly in the nightmares of parents, students and teachers alike.") Anecdotes and all that but I think it all depended on where you went to school.
*
tl;dr - People are dumb
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Uh, if I remember correctly while it was ruled in the girl's favor, they left the door open to future strip searches if they actually had evidence of something illegal happening, by the school and not the police.
Actually, what they said was more along the lines of "we're taking this on a case by case basis right now."
The fact that they didn't declare all strip searches across the board illegal doesn't make them all legal either. The supreme court sometimes operates in shades of grey.
...also they wouldn't let me into the cheer squad despite the fact that I met all of the requirements.
To be honest, the SC pretty much fucked over anyone in high school when they ruled in favor of that Alaska school district who expelled a kid of over a bong hits for jesus sign. When he wasn't on school property, or at a school event. If I remember the legal reasoning boiled down to "schools can do anything they deem necessary to combat drug use."
Edit: Also, did this get posted yet, it's a really well done security analysis of what was going on on these computers. I went back a few pages and didn't see it so: http://strydehax.blogspot.com/2010/02/spy-at-harrington-high.html
After reading through all that, and being a Network admin for a public school system myself, I could only come to the conclusion that the guy responsible was/is simply an asshat and probably shouldn't be in the position he's in at a public school.
We have laptops for the kids to use in class also, but use nothing near as intrusive to keep shenanigans in check and would never even consider something like remote viewing via the webcam as a solution.
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what the fuck kinda school district can afford to send laptops home with kids???
The kind that isn't in the south?
One that's wasting their money. Kids in middle/high school do not need their own laptops in order to be educated.
One that doesn't let dirty Negros,Trailer Trash and Hispanics join their school district?
They are also being sued for redistricting their district to keep the wrong people out.
Anyone who grows up without a computer is at a disadvantage in later life, at least in this current century.
"Computer class" in high school is entirely bullshit and everyone knows it.
I agree.
However, even if you're committed to get a computer into the hands of every student, why a friggin' Macbook? I love Macs, but it seems like barebones netbooks were made for this sort of thing.
They want them to be comfortble with Word and chem programs.
Typing class and basic experience with Microsoft Office is going to be 90 percent of what anybody needs to know.
"they" tried to say that back in the '80s.
then again in the 90's
and now "they're" still saying it.
And yet there's far too many people that grow up sans PC in the home who do just fine using library computers.
... but if you have an XBox 360 or PS3 in the home for your kids to play with but no computer, you should probably have your ass kicked.
"Computer Class" when I was in high school consisted of learning to program Microsoft Basic and Pascal.
... on an IBM PC XT
... with a whopping 20MB full height 5.25" hard drive and a full height 5.25" floppy drive.
... and a green and black display.
"Computer Class" today consists of... what??? How to "Google"???
Three year warranty + educational pricing. Probably isn't all that different in price from a basic laptop + extra warranty. Plus you know, it's shiny and cool looking.
Computer classes offered in my highschool:
Typing class (required for further classes)
Web Design (didn't take it; heard about the Geocities quality all up ins)
Programming (I didn't take it; they used C++ only though)
The latter two are cute and all if you actually wanted to focus in that stuff. But in terms of learning your way around computers, there wasn't shit. You either had to know it, ask a friend, or the teacher did stuff for you. I don't think they understood there was more to computer use at a basic level aside from typing. Now, compared to another class I took during highschool...
There was this school that provided like vocational classes for adults, but highschool students in the area could enroll for free. So I did, took the computer class. In that we covered actual computer hardware (function and installation thereof), DOS, Windows (95 (all four versions), 98, 98se, ME, and 2000), networking (with ME and 2000), Cisco online classes (free because of our enrollment), binary, hexadecimal, electricity (which included wire stripping, securing with various tying methods, and soldering), and making our own CAT-5 cables. Oh, and the first two days were spent building the swanky desks for the class (well, tables) that had electrical sockets throughout. And we spent a shitload of time playing networked games.
First semester in college, every student was required to take an "Introduction to Windows" class. This actually covered Windows functionality as well as MS Office stuffs. While it was an easy A for me and most people there, it actually had substance and I see it having merit in a public education environment. I think it should be a part of public education at some point. Maybe not in highschool, I think earlier would work. Computers are a part of the world we're in. They're as important to know at a basic level as driving a car.
Requiring it in tech school was a little silly to me, but I guess I'm not a person who will jump into something strange and unknown to me.
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The three year warranty costs extra, and the educational discount is 10%, which will just about knock the sales tax off. Even assuming they got a big order discount, they'd run around $600-800 each. You can get a netbook for under $300 before even applying any discount malarky.
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Most of the shit can be done by blindly stumbling through the programs and using the internet or help files. Computers have been made as user friendly as possible.
That seems like a very silly promise.
Currently Playing: Battlefield 3 Premium, FFXIII-2
yes, you need to read that again
(a&b) is only true if a and b are true
for (a&b) to be false, only one of them needs to be false
Why? A unified homeschool curriculum makes sense.
What would be the point? The majority of homeschooling parents do so for religious reasons, they wouldn't respect a government-issued curriculum.
It would be expensive as hell and no one would learn any social skills.
Currently Playing: Battlefield 3 Premium, FFXIII-2
Middleschool or gradeschool then. That's why I left it at public education. I wonder how many of these kids with the laptops understood the webcam light was irregular behavior. I mean I guess some of them brought it up with the school / IT guy, but they did the whole run-around thing and the students bought into it.
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Because clearly learning social skills isn't a major part of going to school.
Not good ones.
rotten kids.
Very true, kids are generally assholes.
But high school is there to learn how to be an asshole in a socially acceptable way, right?
I hate to break it to you but in any system you find in life if you wait long enough it just starts to resemble highschool again. High school is pretty much what life is like.
If only there was a thread to discuss this.
Really? I find it to be the complete opposite for the most part. I mean there are certain things you figure out in high school that are applicable throughout the rest of your time on this planet. But the only time things feel like "high school" to me, are when I'm around people that never managed to move on past it.