High school student gets detention for using Firefox

TechRepublic ^ | Dec. 17, 2007 | Jay Garmon

[twntaipan]

Last week, a student at Big Spring High School in Newville, Pennsylvania was given detention for using Firefox on a school computer. Quoted below is the key explanation from the official detention writeup:

“Today in class [name] had a program launched called Foxfire.exe. I had told [name] to close the program and to resume work but he told me that is was just a different browser and that he was doing his work. I had given him two warnings but he insisted that it was just a ‘better’ browser and he wasn’t doing anything wrong. I had then issued his detention.”

I’m sure whether I should laugh or cry. It says so much about the state of technical education, respect for authority, what passes for civil disobedience and–of course–the all-consuming corporate hegemony of Microsoft. We live in a strange world.

Once again, hat tip to my buddy Lizard for the heads up.

[Still Thinking]

Sort of a modern version of self-flagellation?

And not a good one.

[yhwhsman]

but for installing unauthorized software on a district computer.

Someone needs to tell this kid about Portable Apps. They are programs that run off a USB drive, so there's no need to install it on any computer. All Open Source (ie free as in beer) and has just about any program one could need including Firefox and Thunderbird.

[CA Conservative]

If IT gave the kids admin rights and is now mad because he’s using Firefox instead of IE, sounds like he’s more qualified than they are.

That's a stupid comment. In some of our labs, the users do have the ability to load software needed as part of the course, but they are only allowed to do so with permission or by instruction. IF they load software without permission, they are disciplined. In other words, we expect our students to be able to follow the rules, even when the opportunity to break them exists...

[weegee]

The ALA (American Library Ass.) advises kids how to defeat screening software. Avoiding MS’s web browser could be among their tips.

[Fresh Wind]

The teacher might be an AOL user. Just try to explain the concept of alternate browsers to one of them sometime!

[CA Conservative]

That alone speaks volumes about the competence of the school administrators. If you don’t want students installing software, don’t put install privileges in their accounts.

Wrong. We teach our students how to abide by the rules. You can buy a car that goes 150 MPH, but if you drive it that fast, you will get arrested. In some of our labs, you may have the ability to install software, but if you do without permission, you will get suspended.

It's amazing how many conservatives who profess to believe in personal responsibility seem to think the student is not responsible for violating the policy if the IT department did not completely lock down the workstation...

[dr.zaeus]

Is it a hoax?

http://www.bigspring.k12.pa.us/news.php?action=view_article&article_id=2130

[MarkL]

The graphics displayed on firefox do not look well. If I switch to IE, they look great.

Anyone know how to fix this?

Just be glad that it's only the formatting. There are certain development tools that create web pages that require IE in order to run properly, which really pisses off a lot of people. The problem is that those web pages simply aren't 100% compatible with anything other than IE.

Just be glad it's only the graphics.

There's a major corporation that had developed their own web based applications, and these apps were designed to use Microsoft's VM, which was based on Java, and licensed from Sun. However, it did NOT conform to the Java standards, and Sun sued MS. In the court decision, MS was barred from distributing the VM, and since it's not exactly compatible with Sun's Java, there are a lot of companies with important web based applications that won't work with versions of Windows later then Windows 2000 (you can find the VM on the Internet, if you look hard enough, and it can be installed on Windows XP. )

Mark

[CA Conservative]

I know about Portable Apps. We have software to prevent any application from being lauched from a USB drive. They can save data and read data from the drive, but not launch any executables.

[peggybac]

Thanks.

[CORedneck]

With IE, you cannot bypass forced advertising, interstitial, etc. They even don't allow you to change the security settings - for me, make it more strict.

I worked at a gov site myself. I still work for a DoD contractor, there as well, we are required to use IE. Firefox is forbidden.

At home, Firefox or Seamonkey.

Ah... the government USED to make us use IE. :) I use it at work as do many people. We just can’t put certain add ons in it, but it’s a “class III” software meaning that it has to be approved by our IA folks.

[Rick.Donaldson]

Well, our settings are forced on the systems too, security policies etc. However, there are some things done to remove advertising here (and it’s annoying too, because it slows things to a crawl). Even on FF it’s blocked for me.

It’s got something to do with the firewall and the other neato security crap they put in. I don’t mess with that stuff myself any more, I only work on my systems, which they can’t touch. My internet connection goes through them though.

Also, the IA policies are set by Agency. So my agency has a world wide guideline everyone must meet. Not sure which one you work for but it can’t be much different than mine since it all comes down from DOD anyway

[RonF]

The "teacher" is unaware, here, that the "work" could be done using a program other than "explorer".

Not necessarily. I could have said this myself in the sense of "Close Firefox and finish your work using Explorer."

This kid needs to stop being a wiseass trying to show someone how slick he is and follow the rules.

[markman46]

bump

[A_Tradition_Continues]

I use a co-branded IE browser (Verizon-MSN) with no problems. No crashes. Works great. Firefox seems sluggish to me also.

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

They should have put the school in Lockdown and called the SWAT team - that seems to be the trend these days. I’ll bet this kid runs with a scissors in his hand too.

[ArrogantBustard]

The way I read the note, the kid was instructed to do "the work" (whatever that may have been).

He apparently was doing the work.

The teacher needs more thorough "subject matter knowledge".

[wideminded]

Um ... If you read your entire link, it says that the school claims the letter circulating on the internet is a fake and that this was a prank. I can’t believe that no one else noticed this in 97 posts.

[antiRepublicrat]

That seems like a good way to go, actually.

It worked for us. In the computer science and management courses we had there was always need for the students to be admins, plus which OS needed to be on the machine changed depending on the class.

Of course it's not a good idea if students needed to keep things on the system, although ours were always told to take everything with them. More than once a student came back saying he left such-and-such file on the system. Too bad.

[Repeal 16-17]

The Principal of this school claims this is a prank, that the event never took place:

Recently, a file was uploaded to the Internet purporting to be a copy of a letter from Big Spring High School to a student regarding a two hour detention. The uploaded letter was an altered version of a detention letter sent to a student. Unfortunately, privacy concerns prevent the School District from giving a full explanation of the nature and source of the letter's alteration at this time. The Big Spring School District does have confirmation that the discipline letter was altered. The reports, blogs and other sources on the Internet indicating that a Big Spring student was assigned detention for using the Firefox internet browser instead of Internet Explorer are untrue and were based on the fake letter. Detention is assigned in our schools after appropriate warnings are given, if students continue to engage in non-academic activities or fail to follow a teacher's directive during class time discipline can and will be assigned. Sincerely yours, John C. Scudder High School Principal