Mrs. Connell - TECH FYI
Published by Mrs. J. Connell (Tech) February 26th, 2007 in Announcements.Ever wonder why our school website does not post pictures of students? We made a conscious decision to never put pictures of our students out there. The world, while it is a wonderful and miraculous place, can be full of dark corners and we did not want to put photos of any of our little ones into anyones hands.
Officials from the state attorney’s office and the FBI recommend that schools do not publish any student photographs or personal information, including names or even activity schedules, on school web sites. If a school does publish a student photo, the FBI says it should be a distant group photo, and faces should be angled and unidentifiable. They also say it is not uncommon for undesirables to be attracted to a school through its website.
Checking out other school websites we find that not very many of them follow these simple recommendations. We’re just not sure why that is……….Imagine finding your child’s picture on Myspace or youtube - you’d be horrified, yet to post them on a public webite, even one that belongs to a Catholic school, is only a click and copy away from anywhere for anyone. We celebrate our children with photo bulliten boards all over the classrooms and hallways. Our PSO Newsletter posts pictures in their hardcopy publication. We have a jr high video and hard copy yearbook and a closed circuit TV show featuring jr. high students every Friday. The Tech Center has a student slide show running and pointed out to the hall way all the time. We’re proud of our children and we find many ways, internally, to say so.
We hope you’ll agree with our policy - most do after just a little thought.
Along those same lines did you know… 90% of middle school students have had their feelings hurt online.
75% have visited a Web site bashing another student.
40% have had their password(s) stolen or changed by a bully.
Only 15% of parents polled knew what “cyberbullying” was. Do you?
Source: Wiredsafety.org
