[StayAt HomeMother]

I resent our fourteen year olds having to consider how their ideas might look when they are forty years older and running for office. And I resent this commercial site getting and archiving my child's intellectual property for free.

Isn't that what this whole thread is about? The right to control access to your own writings? If reporters do not want to give us access to their thoughts and opinions, they don't have to print or post them. But the public school system MANDATES my child's term papers be submitted to this company.

[Amelia]

I resent our fourteen year olds having to consider how their ideas might look when they are forty years older and running for office.

Did you think the public had a right to see Hillary Rodham's thesis from Wellesley college when she ran for Senate? Many on this site did.

And I resent this commercial site getting and archiving my child's intellectual property for free...But the public school system MANDATES my child's term papers be submitted to this company.

Have you complained to your school and school board? Do other parents agree with you? In the end, what your local public school does is a local issue.

As I teacher I know there are other methods of detecting plagiarism that don't require use of outside sites, but do require more effort (and a bit of technical savvy) by the teacher.