FCPS: It’s Illegal To Make Websites!

DdOS that school system! Don’t take shit from them Bob, you will be out within one semester… make your mark!

Yes, you used it in school (the proxy) but since you made it outside of school they shouldn’t be able to prosecute you or anything because it has nothing to do with the school.

You could get suspended for using the proxy inside school but if they suspend you they better do it to everybody else too because they used it just as much if not more than you did.

I feel for your situation (been there before ;)) and hope the best for you!

@ Jeffrey: Here’s the thing though, I actually never went to my own proxy on my own account. I don’t really care to use FaceBook in school or watch videos on YouTube in class… usually too busy doing other stuff.

They’re just making me take all the blame just because I own it and it was on my domain and other students were abusing it.

In fact, the IT guy had a full report of my history printed out, and I had not visited a single OT website the entire year. They’re simply charging me for running the proxies, not for using them, and that’s why I think they are wrong.

Thanks for the comment!

@ Adam: DDoS may land me in the slammer. I think I’ll just fly under the radar till school’s out…

Yea, they might know your prob the only student that could open a can of “whoop ass” on them. LOL.

“Worst part is that now I’m tagged as being a ‘computer hacker’ and a ‘potential threat’ to the school system. A mass email was sent out from the administrator who accused me of this to all the teachers, administrators, librarians, etc in the entire school, which basically says I’m a criminal and I need to be watched when getting within a 10-foot radius of a computer.”

Can you get written documentation of this? It sounds like the actual law is on your side, and you may have the grounds for a slander lawsuit against the school administration. Seriously, talk to a lawyer. You can probably destroy the reputation of the administration (if you so desire), cash in big time (if you so desire), and/or at least clear your name.

are there not laws protecting you against written slander against your person or the like? in regards to the malicious statements made against you in the mass email i mean.

Sue for libel.

Robert,

Good news for you! You have a lawsuit against them, and they have nothing against you. You can sue them for Libel. A good point for this is them saying you broke a rule by refusing to point it out, and calling you a menace while doing nothing more then any other kid there. I recommend you start talking to a laywer and start blowing off the Admins, because honestly they don’t have anything on you. Seriously, at least consult a lawyer.

Austin
email: xiderchaos@hotmail.com

P.S.

Keep your proxies online. There is no rule in FCPS (I went there), that allows them to expelle you for running a private website.

And now Fark knows about this.

Just thought you’d wanna know.

Dude, have you thought about trying out for the school’s Drama Club? Because I’ve got to say you’re laying it on pretty thick here. Totalitarianism? For trying to scare a punk kid into straightening up? Come. On.

Don’t act like it was just some thing for “personal use” that magically leaked out, when you even acknowledge that you told friends about it. High school kids can’t keep that kind of shit to themselves.

Contact an organization called F.I.R.E.

They will sue the shit out of the school on your behalf.

Hmm, two things you can do:

1. Take the incident to the schoolboard, and point out said administrator has falsely accused you of a crime, and is interfering with your education as a result. They should, if they’re not total asshats, at the minimum let you retake your exam, and ideally lift the restrictions.

2. Inform said administrator that you will be suing him/her with libel for the false statements made against you in the mentioned email. Demand an apology be sent out, and the restrictions lifted. If not, find an attorney, and actually sue their libelous asses.

If you or your parents know a lawyer you could go after them for this. A school has no right to determine what you do outside of school property.

If nothing else get this story out to the media. Tech sites or legal tech sites will pick it up in a heartbeat. Generate visibility. What they did to you is complete bullshit and shouldn’t be tolerated.

Good post, too. No offense to your generation, but it’s rare to find a well written post by someone in high school.

@admin: “I actually never went to my own proxy _on my own account_.”

I like how you threw that little technicality on the end. I bet Suzy Cheerleader (whose password happens to be the quarterback’s name) spent a lot of your time on your proxy.

And generally doing something like this for yourself isn’t looked at as bad as giving it to other people. You saw the kind of bandwidth spike and mass slacking off that happened once word got out.

Back when I was in high school, we all had those TI-83 graphing calculators, and would write programs to cheat. Most kids just used it like a text editor. But my cheats were spectacular. Showed work on math problems and everything.
Had a teacher once take me aside and flat out tell me she didn’t care if I did it for myself so long as nobody else got to freeload, and it made sense. I always learned the material in the time it took to code them. Used the program to double check. Those other kids were using my programs to cheat themselves out of an education. I didn’t want to be a contributor to that, so I kept the cheating to myself.

Those in power fear that which they do not understand. If this negatively affects your education, I would seek legal counsel. Do not let the ignorant bully you around. The GEEKS shall inherit the earth.

I’d suggest talking to your friendly neighborhood civil rights lawyer- someone who takes on cases for free- and suing for libel.

You’re Certainly Not A Hacker, At Least Not As Related To This Matter, Nor A Criminal. The Real Criminals In This Case Are The Ones Who Have Deprived You Of Your Rights. You Do Have Recourses, Seek Them Out. Is Langley HS In Proximity To The CIA Langley? Perhaps Your Actions Were Monitored From Elsewhere?

http://www.thefire.org/

There is a link to their website…..by the way you have been slandered by the administration ….which is the grounds for a $$ lawsuit.

Have you thought about making a request for a copy of the records for all of the sites visited by the staff?
The Virginia Freedom of Information Act might be useful for this.

Noticed this in a comment on Fark:
“‘Worst part is that now I’m tagged as being a ‘computer hacker’ and a ‘potential threat’ to the school system. A mass email was sent out from the administrator who accused me of this to all the teachers, administrators, librarians, etc in the entire school, which basically says I’m a criminal and I need to be watched when getting within a 10-foot radius of a computer.’

Time to turn lemons into lemonade, YOU HAVE BEEN THE VICTIM OF LIBEL! Talk to a lawyer. You can profit big time from this, embarrass the school and it’s administrators AND probably get retraining orders and sanctions to protect yourself from further abuse and retaliation.”

It’s very true. They’re calling you a criminal in public and it’s not true. That’s libel and you can sue the pants off of them.

get a lawyer and sue
start with defamation of charactor for sending out Emails claiming your some kind of criminal

but definatly see a lawyer

Just threaten to lawyer up. I haven’t heard of a public school yet that’ll keep up bullshit threats against that.

By the way, you’re on Fark.com. Smile.

And I forgot the link. Enjoy.

http://forums.fark.com/cgi/fark/comments.pl?IDLink=3369113

Good luck =)

If you didn’t know already, your article got posted on Fark…

and you have a few boat loads of (semi)helpful information and suggestions…

http://forums.fark.com/cgi/fark/comments.pl?IDLink=3369113

i like the lawyer idea

Hey there Bob, and it sounds to ‘moi’ that YOU should be contacting a lawyer and slapping them silly with a lawsuit consisting of whatever you can think of against them. Good luck on that there.

This made Fark, congrats!

/Runs a proxie on college campus, boo-yaah

Looks like you’re the victim of Retarded Boomer Syndrome. A generation of self-absorbed do-nothings with a huge sense of entitlement, they’ve gone through life without forming any discernable intellect and no skills, which is why they are where they are now. That entire generation is marked by pathological hysteria, especially in the males, and a complete inability to comprehend fiscal responsibility.

But there’s an upside. You’ve been slandered. You did nothing wrong, and you were unfairly targeted by ignoramii who decided to pick on you purely because do not have the ability to understand even very simple things.

Hire yourself a lawyer. Get the evidence. Sue their asses off.
And when you’re old enough to vote, remember to vote to abolish social security.
That way you won’t have to pay or that generations poor fiscal choices.

If they are spreading the emails about to the entire faculty about this behavior of yours off of school grounds, I would look into hitting them with libel. They are defaming your reputation with untrue and incorrect opinions being perpetrated as facts.

You should contact a lawyer, If I’m not mistaken you could have a case for libel against them. Even if for some reason the court sides against you, the publicity brought upon you and the small minded school officials would be priceless.

This happened to a friend of mine 10 years ago when I was in high school…he got the same treatment (no computer access for the rest of his stay there.)

People fear what they don’t understand.

Man, it’s been 15 years since I graduated high school and I swear, the people running the system are getting dumber every year. Well, there’s one truth that hasn’t changed since I got sprung from that hell hole:

Schools are for drones, not people who can think for themselves. You broke the mold, and your little magic trick of whipping up an external proxy server has them scared because it busted their expensive filter. And I believe that federal and state funding is tied to the fact that these filters are in place (see: CIPA). That’s probably why you got put on the block. As always, it’s about money.

Your other problem is you are dealing with school administrators - People who would barely be capable of serving you french fries if they hadn’t been brainwashed by academia all their life, and continue the lie because they can’t get a job anywhere else. You can’t argue with these guys. IMHO, your best best is to put your head down and fly under radar until you graduate. Then come back and fix their system for a piece of that sweet, sweet government money pot.

It sucks, but high schools are absolute dictatorships ruled by petty power addicts. (Not to say that there aren’t nice people there too, but they’re hardly the ones that create friction for students, no?)

Nails taller than the ones around them get hammered down. Best strategy is to avoid all conflict until graduation, as going to a university is the fun part anyway. Completely a not-fun strategy, but it saves you trouble.

As soon as you walk through those doors, ‘rights’ become an abstract concept that holds no sway over the internal operating reality in place there. If the system has more resources than you do, it wins every time in this situation.

Yeah, I don’t miss high school at all.

I think you have a case here. Lawyer up and sue their asses for libel and/or slander. Do whatever you have to do to get a copy of that mass email, along with all the forwarding addresses.

Show those bastards that your rights won’t be violated.

Keep us updated. Your site made fark.com so you know your school is gonna get bombarded. The school is clearly in the wrong here. I would suggest contacting local media. You can really have some fun with this.

Well a link to this page was submitted to fark.com and greened. This story will be everywhere now.

Get some legal advice and the media all over it, they’ll apologize so fast it’ll make your head spin

you’re absolutely right. they have no right and they are only getting their way out of intimidation. don’t worry, you won’t get suspended, and they have to define the rule that you have broken in order to do anything to punish you. don’t let them do it.

you’re dead on when you say that it’s as though you have no rights. i was treated very similar to you when i was in high school and i didn’t let them stop me. write to your superintendent. that definetely gets your principal and other faculty’s attention. if that doesn’t do anything, contact the ACLU. they did this to me 5 years ago and they’re doing it to you today. you could help set a precident so that it doesn’t happen again, at least at your school.

tear it up

Get a lawyer. That’s the only thing school administrations understand. Otherwise, like you said, they hold all the power.

The ACLU is among the few organizations out there that champion student rights, and it wouldn’t surprise me if they took interest in your situation.

Keep fighting the good fight.

Was any of your stuff hosted on their equipment? Was it their bandwidth? What kind of activity was happening that got them upset, IE, what were your users doing?

If it was entirely outside of their control, I can’t imagine how they can justify their actions.

I would sue the school system for defamation of character. Then you can move on with your life. Go buy a cheeseburger or something

My 2 cents - drop out of school, home school yourself until you graduate, and do what the hell you want with your life.

You didn’t need to use your own proxy server to get to the open internet. Langley has its own proxy server that’s exempt from the content restrictions and such. You just gotta know how to get to it. Thats how we used to do it back-in-the-day.

If you’re having trouble with Clendaniel, be straight with him. Makes life a lot easier. If you fight with him, he gets 10x more difficult. You might have to explain to him in great detail what you set up and what it does, but if you’re able to do that, it will make things better. You are right, he and the other administrators don’t quite understand what proxy servers and such are. They just see that you did something “sneaky.”

I know a few folks who are still in good positions at Langley. I’ll see if I can talk some sense into them for you.

I believe you may have a libel case. If I were you, I would consider contacting an lawyer, if for nothing else to have your name cleared and to receive a public apology. Consider also your “permanent record” - how might this affect college?

Instead of doing something silly like a DdOS…If what you have stated is true, you are a victim of libel and have a very strong case. I’d turn this ordeal into $$$

If they are sending bulk emails to all their staff, making you out to be a criminal without filing any charges or stating specific breaches of conduct (like you said, identifying the section in their TOS)… there’s a word for it.

Slander.

You’re only as good as your word, and a bad reputation can haunt you forever.

Sue the school and system for harrassment.

Do you pay money to go to this school? Demand a refund. Sue for it.

Also, may want to take into note that they don’t have competent IT staff who can’t block access to your proxy server to stop access to it.

Just a few cents..

I’m sorry to hear that their ignorance is becoming your doom.

Matt

I think you have a strong legal case against your school here. Id seek the advice of counsel (lawyer) and not even discuss this with anyone at your school.

If your administrators or teachers bring it up, sat the following thing “Per the advice of counsel, Im not to discuss this matter. Any disciplinary action will be viewed as retaliatory”

I can point you in the right direction.

Have you considered contacting an attorney or the EFF, just out of curiosity?

I suppose it might be too late now, but examples should be made of school administrations that overstep their bounds.

Best of luck.

Put the proxy back up, contact FIRE and the ACLU. Nothing makes idiotic school administrators shrivel up like bad publicity.

Dude, that’s going WAY to far. Not you- them. Seriously, that’s farked up. I’m not one to normally say this, but threaten legal action- emotional distress, etc, etc.

If it gets to bad you can always take it to court on discrimination grounds, especially if the mass email made teachers and faculty act differently towards you and it affected your learning environment. Fuck the system

Teachers know dick about computers and what they don’t know they are scared of. I almost got kicked off a computer course at my school for “hacking”. All I did was go on whatsmyip.com and find the IP of the computer. The thing is trying to get them to listen to reason. If you can get them to do that you can do anything…

Sucks man. They don’t understand somebody who’s actually interested in a real life skill that can become their career. They want you to be interested in sports or in purely academic pursuits so that when you get out of high school you’re forced into college whether you need it or not. If they try to screw with you we’ll all mobilize everyone we know and get this story in the national press; I’d like to see your school district’s press liason try to explain this without sounding like a fascist. Hang in there, it’ll be over soon!

First, I gotta wonder, why did you need to proxy in the first place. Since their only use to to subvert web filters to violate school/company policies. Then you made the serious mistake of telling your friends about it so they started using it from school.

You hit that magical state where YOU did not break the rules, but you gave others the ability to break it, but YOU still get the blame.

Technically, they may be on questionable grounds since there is not a rule specifically banning what you did. Unfortunately for you, you are “low enough on the totem pole” that they can bend the rule to accommodate you.

Forgetting the “legalese” and technicalities, in the end, you, purposely, created a tool which gave your friends the ability to subvert the schools Internet policy and you got caught.

Phone call to ACLU that your rights to a public education are being denied?

Dude, don’t be another typical fuckhead American. Just because you can sue doesn’t mean you should. There is such thing as being the bigger man and a goodwill gesture of just taking it down. Not knowing much abt proxies is there a way to make them less accessible to people who you don’t want to use them?

I think you’ve got a moral obligation to take any action you legally can against the school at this point. If you don’t, frankly, you’re giving these tyrannical despots the confidence (or, at least, increasing such) to continue ignoring the legal rights of yourself and others. Scare tactics such as those used by the school have to be discouraged, especially pulling you out of an exam. It seems to me you are, in fact, being punished for breaking no rule, and doing, essentially, nothing, which is more than a little frightening. Do whatever you can.

I’ll be monitoring how this develops. If you follow the majority of the advice here (get legal advice, be it private, FIRE, ACLU or the EFF), make sure to keep us posted.

It doesn’t matter if you told others how to use the proxy. You told them outside of school, for non-school purposes. Therefore, it’s really none of the school’s business what your friends do with your proxy.

It would be helpful, though, if you could quote the contents of the email, to see if you actually do have a case. I think you do, but I’m not a lawyer.

If the administrator has actually mentioned the words ‘computer hacker’ in this email, he is explicitly accusing you of criminal activity. Libel/slander as far as I’m aware.

1. Stop protecting the folks coming after you; you can disclose their names so long as you stick to the facts.

2. Get a lawyer. FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights in Education) and many other groups are out there to help folks just like you. It won’t take much - a couple of letters ought to get you an apology.

3. Let the school know you welcome this scrutiny of your proxy, if for no other reason than to revamp the acceptable use policy and better the academy. Offer to help. When they don’t share your enthusiasm, accuse them of underhandedness and McCarthyism. Classic.

Claiming you’re a criminal for operating a proxy server is like calling someone a rapist for selling condoms. Contact the ACLU and have them spank the school. They shouldn’t be allowed to wallow in their own ignorant self-righteousness like this.

You rolled over, and the school ran all over you. Should of fought it too the end, especially when they are unable to specify the exact rule/policy you broken. The old idiom: Give an inch and they’ll take a mile.

As a rent-a-geek at a K-12 school, I may have a unique perspective on this.

Ok, first of all, all your proxies could be blocked without knowing their addresses. No, I’m not going to tell you how, other than to say that your school needs an updated filtering system.

Second of all, your school really is caught between a rock and a hard place. Individually, the people you are dealing with may not give a damn about you running a proxy, and all the kids accessing it. However, various government rulings have made it clear that the school has to limit student access to the internet.

In addition, there is legislation in the works that you, as a proxy site operator should be aware of, it will require you to not only maintain a list of everyone that accesses your proxy, but require you to maintain all traffic through your proxy indefinitely.

Now, can they bust you for this website?

Maybe.

It’s going to depend on what was done with this proxy. Were any internet usage rules violated by people using your proxy? I’m going to guess that they were. As a result, you essentially, enabled people to violate the internet rules of your school even if you yourself did not personally violate those rules.

To put this in another context that you might feel uncomfortable with, let’s say that someone asked you to carry drugs into the school. You did not purchase or sell drugs, you did not use drugs, but your actions allowed other people to have drugs in the school. Even if the school policy did not specify that carrying drugs was a violation, you would be guilty of violating the spirit of the rules, and in a court of law you would be found in violation of the rules.

Here’s my suggestion, take it for what you will, but i think it might be enough to get you out of this mess.

Request that the school create a class or an assembly focused on internet ethics. Request that lawyers who specialize in technology law and ethics be invited, as well as network administrators.

Do not yell this at the principal or superintendent, do not threaten them. Write this up as a proposal with a benefit analysis, and include such things as positive press relations and media coverage for the school.

Odds even if you do not get that class or assembly, you will cause the whole thing to blow over much more quickly.

Well kid you made it on fark and digg. I have seen small stories turn into coast to coast news and even international (like the retarded kid from australia that through the the party.)

Just get a lawyer and get ready for the exposure this may get.

Good luck

People who advocate DDoSing the school, even sarcastically, are only hurting this story. If the wrong journalist gets a hold of this story, they’re not going to mention how creating a proxy is benign. All they’re going to mention is how the commenters on the evil hacker’s website are promoting illegal activity.

You can sue your school for violating your rights. As a student, no teacher or administrator can humiliate you.

Kid, don’t contact the ACLU on this one.

All that will happen is you will wind up making an annoyance into the biggest mistake of your life, and the internet community will wind up with another martyr.

If you play this right, you can come out on top. If you play this wrong, then your name will be celebrated briefly while you go on to live in a cardboard box by the bus station begging for change. And al the people who encouraged you to make a big stink will quickly forget they ever heard of you.

Work with the school, assist them in preventing further problems like this, and go on to make some bank with not only an entry on your resume, but some glowing recommendations from your school and a few headlines to pad you personnel files.

High School: It’s ILLEGAL To Make Websites! | Deliggit.com

robertafnani.com

High school senior threatened, interrogated, and could be facing criminal prosec

“A mass email was sent out from the administrator who accused me of this to all the teachers, administrators, librarians, etc in the entire school, which basically says I’m a criminal”

If that’s true, you have a solid case of libel, and can recover damages.

Get a lawyer…call the ACLU! As you are a student, the ACLU might be very interested in your case.

Get on-line…do some research. You have done nothing wrong and the legal information to validate your innocence can be found from legitimate websites.

Know that you now have your own cheering section that extends beyond your school. On an intellectual and rational level, we all know you have done nothing wrong…

In my day, the GIANT controversy at my school was over running a story in the school newspaper on a pregnant teen. It was the last semester of my senior year. I was the newspaper editor and I made sure the story ran…and I still got my diploma.

Good Luck!

Dude don’t take that kinda shit from the school system. Threaten them that you’ll go to court and you have a enuf evidence to defend yourself. If they still try to suspend u then just ask them to be fair and have them suspend rest of the school with you cause they also used it, if they hadn’t then the school won’t know ur site even existed.

There are many ways to go about doin this and needling the school admins and forcing them to back down.

Very sorry that this happened to u..

PLEASE, consult a lawyer and fuck them up for all of us.

Seriously this is a slam-dunk lawsuit.

Do it. And report back.

Sue their asses! Seriously, they have absolutely NO right to do this shit to you, they can not tell you what you can and can not do outside of school and they defiantly can not tell you that because students are accessing your website YOU are to blame for disrupting the school, how bout they need to get control of their classes or something…They are just trying to post the blame on someone besides the faculty that’s how schools work, so do the smart thing have your parents call a lawyer (if your under 18) and own that shit! They have slandered your name, and have caused you due stress and you feel like because of this treatment you can not get the education you have a right to…undue stress.

Man,

You are kicking off. and i think i can see your point. But calm down. You are obviously bright, so you must realise that creating a proxy and bringing it into school is a REALLY dumb thing to do.

As a teacher in the UK i yell at kids all day for using proxies on a network. In most schools there are problems with you accessing “inappropriate information on the school network” which, if you are using your proxy to get round a filter, you are doing (you may not be using the proxy for getting porn, but someone will be). If you made a virus at home, brought it into school and killed the network, would you still argue the same point?

I think, from the rest of your message you are SERIOUSLY over egging it. Your admin has probably said that to staff so if you are required to do work on a computer they can arrange alternative work.

Get over it. become friends with your admin and work together. you probably know that what you have done is wrong and are looking to the internet for backup(its what i would have done).

[…] He blogs about it here. […]

Talk to a lawyer. Talk to a lawyer. Talk to a lawyer. Talk to a lawyer. Many will work on a “will get paid when we when” basis.

They are impeding your education because of their ignorance of technology. And in a court, a judge will require explanations of what everything is, and will see how completly unrelated it is and you might be entitled to some money, if not the school will probably be fined and the people involved will be suspended/fired.

I did the same thing at my school. Within a week and a half almost every student in the building had used it or had it written down to use. Luckily no one knew it was me. The site made school wide announcements and it also created a new section in the code of conduct.

Thank god I didn’t get caught…

I would suggest that you not talk to any school administration without your parents present at the least. A lawyer or someone from ACLU would be best.
Any promises offline that you make, you ask them to put on paper and tell them that you will take it home for review.
You are not required to keep any promises that you made verbally under duress. If they penalize you for it, you can say that promise was made under duress and technically speaking you can start contacting a lawyer.
Good luck

And if you can’t get shit done at one level, escalate. Go talk to the school district board administrators. As there is no policy you’re violating, you shouldn’t have much problem if you’re good with your words.

I was in a similar situation, I know how you feel. Don’t take their bullshit, fight it.

Wow thats just insane. It’s people like that , that make the whole learning process a pain. I went to a very small highschool so they where open to any help they could get with computers. However proxies are available all over the place. Using it at school to access sites banned by the school might be illegal, but they have no right to tell you to shut yours off. Sounds like they are scared of technology. Instead of punishing students and making them hate the school and want to do bad things to the network, why not embrace this and help them learn. When I was younger in school…8th gradeish…my buddy and I had admin rights before they knew what was going on. Instead of punishing us they gave us an independent study in high school that only helped us. Now I am a sys admin and do lots of work for some large corporations, and I have a lot of my knowledge because they had an opened mine.

Robert: Read up on The code of Virginia, section 2.2-3700. The Virginia Freedom of Information act. You can request all sorts of information from the school and legally they have to provide it. You seem like a very smart guy. I’m sure you could think of public information the school has, but has not made public. E-mails for example. There are exclusions. But What else might be public information? log files? They probably have already claimed to have them, right? They couldn’t suddenly claim they don’t have them anymore if you asked. could they.?

I know this’ll sound repetitive, but I’m going to stand with guys who say “get a lawyer”. You have a text book libel case. Don’t do it for the money because there’s a 50% percent chance at best you’ll ever see any. Do it because this kind of abuse in schools needs to be addressed. Too many young adults have their desire to learn stifled because any time they show an ounce of creativity or talent that might surpise their instructors they are suddenly in violation of the rules. Make it better for those who come after you. Good luck in the future, I suspect you’ll do great things.

Ahah! Funny, I went to JEB Stuart Highschool (also part of FCPS) and it’s incredibly funny what they claim. You haven’t broken any rules, maybe they should hire you to update their sites, as it seems they were made by 10 year-olds.

DDos requires 7 proxies which apparently he lacks.
on a serious note, you seem like a perfect candidate for the anon personal army
I’m sure anon has been alerted and will come to your rescue

If you had half a brain you would have gotten a lawyer to represent you in front of the school board ASAP.

Contact a lawyer.

This is the most asinine comment you’ll get, I have no doubt, but I’m from that area (not Fairfax specifically, but nearby) and I’ve been hearing stuff like this for decades. I’m not saying it’s pointless to put up a fight, or sue, or take some action… in fact, I really hope you do. But change like you want has to happen over generations, little by little. Frankly, most people just move away. It’s no wonder Fairfax isn’t doing so great.

I really do hope you take action… actions like yours can help the future of Fairfax, and it needs help! But understand you’re facing generations of prejudice and hate. You can’t win, but maybe your actions will help people in the future win.

There’s a bigger picture, and you’re in it.

Good luck.

Inviting both the EFF and the ACLU down on you…. stupid. Whoever is the legal adviser for the district should have their license re-examined.

Exactly what is the legal authority the district has over material, places, property or ideas which are separate from the school system. (note: argument can be made for ideas generated withing the school system as well). Don’t try to throw “moral turpitude” clauses at children since the chances are that the adults on the payroll are more likely to run afoul of them. (Lovely thing about the turpitude clauses - they are a catchall covering everything)

Oh.. wait.. maybe we shouldn’t teach children what their civil rights are….

Cover your ears children… I am about to swear: READ THE CONSTITUTION!

Hey, I came to this site through the Inq. I must say, only ignorance could have caused this misunderstanding. That, and probably an overwhelming desire to appeal to everybody by being politically correct.

I feel for you man. Lie low. Until you get your diploma, that is. Then sue the heck out of the school

Sounds like my school and my friend’s proxy that was up but he was also threatened to be expelled.
They also made a big deal and ignored the internet useage agreement.

Here’s a tip, keep the site up and see how they react. It is a public school and should have access to all public information.
Blocking many websites just because they are potentially harmful to certain twats is unjust to the rest of us who actually use the internet to learn.

Go for it!

The problem with your fucking stupid country is the sheer number of overweight inbreeding fucktards, you should pray for another 9000 9/11 attacks to fix this flawed genetic imbalance. Otherwise go back to that school and beat cho high score already.

Guess what, if you create a network allowing a huge amount of students to subvert the AUP, your school is going to be pissed off. Sure, they’re basically stupid but you can’t change that. It serves you right for putting fame above sensibility and not keeping your proxy locked down/quiet. I’m no stranger to generally making a mess of school systems and I can tell you, it is not worth your education for the small amount of kicks and “cool infamy” that I loved.

It is apparent that the individual iq level of the entire area is below average. If you should happen to send a bombthreat linking to the school, surrounding commercial/industrial areas, police station etc. you can bet the whole town would face immediate lulz meltdown.

bl dude

I use to browse cp at school till the sys admin decided to walk past my terminal just as the browser froze and wouldn’t respond to alt+tab, but still I only got a 2 week ban.

Don’t take no guff from these swine. Be sure that you know your rights, and when you refuse to comply, threaten them every step of the way with a law-suit. Don’t be afraid to go over their heads either. Right to your school-board. Do your parents have friends in the community? Don’t lie down. Fight them for the next generation to come along.

I feel for you, man. I have been abused by groups of misguided fools too. Just google my name and you will see. Take the power into your own hands, my friend. Fight back. Use your words. Be an eloquent provocateur. Punish these petty administrators. Visit http://www.highstreet.org. Be bold.

Correction to the above comment.

Ahhh…I am such a fool. Perhaps this is why I have no friends. I meant to type http://www.high-street.org. I forgot the hyphen. Oh, how I long for the days before I became a slob. Please, Google me - Horseonovich - and learn of my plight. I am truly lonely. I hope things work out for you.

The strongest words in the English language: “I need a lawyer.”

I think the suggestion of a lawsuit for unjust harassment for completely legal actions would stop them in their tracks.

You could always set up a new proxy on some anonymous free host or something. This is a good site with anonymity tips: http://defendyoursites.tripod.com/id28.html

Who knows, next they might attack you for posting this on your blog.

The law is on your side in this one. You could probably sue them, but then again, schools have this weird ability to win lawsuits even when they’re clearly in the wrong, so maybe not.

Good luck.

I am in the SAME situation. Made a proxy and they suspended my account. Who the hell do they think they are. They Arnt police so leave us alone. LOL. I had 15000 hits from my school alone in less than a month until I got an email from the school techs LOL. Good luck

[…] read more | digg story […]

I just filed a FOIA request for all information pertaining to this situation. It’s extremely easy to do, if you go to the FCPS web site you’ll find a form to do so. Given that I’m a tax payer and property owner in Fairfax County, I expect to get a reasonable response. I suggest anyone else who’s interested in the facts associated with this case do the same.

There may be nothing “illegal” about what you were doing, but you are not paying for the school’s computers and internet service. The people who pay taxes do. You and other students are in school to learn, not to dick around. You need to learn that just because we live in America that you are not free to do whatever the hell you want whenever the hell you want to. When you grow up and get a job, you will also most likely be under the same restrictions by the company you work for. Except in that case they are paying you to do work.

If you were smart, which you obviously aren’t, you would do you school work, go to a good university and learn to start your own business where you can do whatever the hell you want to. Instead you will probably be one of those kids that drops out of HS of college and is always getting in trouble for breaking the law.

Being tagged as a computer hacker is not bad and you should own the title. I have been in th I.T. industry for 10 years now and ethical hacking is a great way to make a living. Alot of industries need your type to overcome objections. Great memories in H.S., being able to tell other cool kids you got expelled for principles … not bad.

Good luck.

First off, if the school doesn’t like your website it’s their job to BLOCK IT. If they aren’t running something like Websense then they have absolutely no right to cry about what sites their students visit.

Heck, they could fix it with a simple hosts file modification if they wanted to get serious about it, but the fact that they’re hassling you proves they have no clue.

Second, sending out a mass e-mail fraudulently describing what you did may or may not be libel, but it’s DEFINITELY defamation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defamation

“In law, defamation (also called vilification, slander, and libel) is the communication of a statement that makes a false claim, expressively stated or implied to be factual, that may harm the reputation of an individual, business, product, group, government or nation. Most jurisdictions allow legal actions, civil and/or criminal, to deter various kinds of defamation and retaliate against groundless criticism.”

Get a lawyer, NOW.

You have a remedy that works: filing a federal lawsuit against your school. Please, please, please do yourself, your fellow students and others a favor and file a federal lawsuit against the school seeking redress in all its forms. Your rights follow you throughout life.even to school………you don’t check your rights at the school door like a coat and hat. Please contact some federal civil attorneys and file a complaint with the Justice Dept. claiming constitutional rights violations. You probably have a claim in small claims court as well as state court. Please consult counsel immediately. Don’t let the school intimidate you - you should be intimidating them with real legal action.

We would be happy to step in and provide you and your fellow students with portable USB anti-censorship software that runs on our international proxy servers. Please feel free to contact me.

My school would never dream of telling a student that his/her activities with a private web site were somehow an infringement of our internet/computer use policy. That policy covers the use of school networks and school equipment. The school has absolutely no standing to tell you what you may or may nor do after school hours with your own equipment outside of the school’s network.

Is it possible that this is the result of a misunderstanding, or ignorance on the part of the school admin as to what exactly you are doing? I am a very tech savvy teacher but many are not and they can be intimidated by students who know more than they do. I try to learn from the kids who know more than I do.

If your school has a conflict mediation program, perhaps you can look into that.

+5 for using ’shit ton’ twice in the story

http://www.thefire.org/ Mission
The mission of FIRE is to defend and sustain individual rights at America’s colleges and universities. These rights include freedom of speech, legal equality, due process, religious liberty, and sanctity of conscience—the essential qualities of individual liberty and dignity. FIRE’s core mission is to protect the unprotected and to educate the public and communities of concerned Americans about the threats to these rights on our campuses and about the means to preserve them.

fight the power, peace out

It would be interesting to see how many of the teachers/staff used that proxy, or any other proxy.

Don’t be such a whiny pussy, get a lawyer and fight it bitch. If it’s too much trouble to look for one just take your spanking and shut up baby.

That sucks, man. Perhaps some organization will hire a lawyer for you? (EFF?)

i went to langley and grad. in 03. this kind of shit happened all the time. shake it off, and if you need to, get a lawyer. they will lay off of you then.

I went to a FCPS school years ago, and I was a troublemaker with the computers myself. One teacher even yelled at me (with profanities) about how I would never amount to anything and would just end up in jail for computer “hacking.” She must have “Yale” instead of “jail”, because those “hacking” skills landed me in a great career as a technology executive, I have a master’s degree in CS, and I’m currently working on a PhD in CS. Seriously, they should just completely get rid of all computers in high schools. Kids know more about them than the teachers do anyway. They need to go back to blackboards and TEACH, rather than babysit. Maybe then kids won’t get so bored they have to make proxies in order to get around the obviously inadequate security devices.

You should contact the ACLU and complain, they will pursue legal action against the school for free

I dont know about fairfax county, but here in Chesterfield, we have to sign a computer ethics policy, and it says something like: students may not use proxy websites for the use of getting around restrictions placed upon student computers.

You’re absolutely right, they have no right to do this. So don’t roll over, get a lawyer and litigate the piss out of them.

Gosh, there are a bunch of dumb people on here. There is no basis for a lawsuit here. School districts are fairly well insulated against lawsuits of this nature. I’m sure nobody thought of the fact that the administrators while misguided were actually looking to make sure students got a good education and not just looking to bust the balls of a student. Contrary to popular belief we actually like students and want to see them succeed. Some of us may be a bit misguided at times, but we are human. While I don’t think the administrator did the right thing in this case I don’t think his heart was in the wrong place.

[…] I have become a monster. It is all this that has been brought into my mind by reading about the plight of one young man who it seems pretty evident is cast in a similar mold to my own. It’s a […]

Oh man, I would be livid mad.
If I knew how, I’d make a simple tutorial on how to set up a proxy server, so everyone else could do it from their home.

Ha, I was suspended for 2 days for having a website while in high school. Why? Well there was a blog, a boatload of games, and a proxy server.

Suspended… 2 days…. Website…. and no rights.

Get your parents or whoever host the server behind you and tell the school that they thought that a proxy server would be a useful tool on their network. The school is afraid because of what parents might think when their kid find porn off their proxy - but they are not going to fight a student as much as they would fight the rights of a private citizen.

I got in trouble for telling people to go to the isgay.com website - I didn’t get in trouble in the end because I told the truth, that the site exists whether or not timmy goes to timmy.isgay.com They did ask me not to tell any more people about it though.

I also got in trouble for getting the ip address of a school printer so that i could print to it from a pda. I showed the vice principal that he could see the ip address without doing anything special when he printed anything.

It didn’t hurt that I worked on my school’s website and in the end, got paid by my school.

dude, practically the same thing happened to me except i also had tons of photochopped pics of teachers that were gory, explicit and other shit, as well as tons of papers and work for free dl, and a proxy. it was one of the most popular sites in my general area, kids from other schools were using it. i was avg about 15k hits a day. i was brought into the deans office, notified that i was being suspended indefinately. called my mom, she called the lawyer, he came in, he told them there was nothing they could do bc i did it on my own with my own computer and i wasnt the one giving me 15k hits a day, it was the students, and if they wanted to punish anyone it would have to be them and not me bc i did nothing wrong. he showed them an example of someone in NJ doing the same thing, got suspended, sued the school and won hundreds of thousands of dollars, so stand up for your rights! bring back that site! and let everyone use it! then sue the school and settle with a couple grand and ur name on the front of the building lol

What will FCPS think up next. I remember kids getting suspended @ C’ville for getting into a fight on the weekend and the cops were brought into it. That was over 10 years ago. What a communist county…

ya dude thats fucking gay. sue their asses!

My brother had the exact same thing happen to him as Robert, except in Colorado’s district 11. Sadly, my parents agreed with the administration(They’re right, blah blah blah. We told them they were wrong and even showed them there was nothing in the agreement against making a proxy on your own computer, and they still said the administration was right. And we never even used it, which is against the agreement).

He was suspended for a week.
The VP said, and I quote: “You’re like a drug lord, and these kids are your helpless addicts”, and said the only reason he wasn’t immediately expelled was because he told the truth that it was his proxy(And he argued against them for quite a while, before giving up such a hopeless battle).

Sounds like a case of people feeling threaded by you.
Because;
A.) you have more brains than then
B.) you could probably do there job
C.) they are lacking the there manhood
D.) all of the above

Good work, I think your school really needs to sit down. Rather than take of the Blame thrower. They could use you for something useful. Rather than making you out to be a criminal. So its illegal now to use to brain???? Wait a sec I though school was about learning :S….

Your system administrator sounds like a F**KT**D!!!

Good work

Submit this to your local newspapers, either as a story or as a “letter to the editor”.

They’ll run it.

Yes, i agree what they did was unjust. However, since they are your legal guardians for those hours of the day they can pretty much suspend you for whatever they want. I fought my school, and so has a friend over technological issues. We both won because we threatened legal action. Legally, it is illegal to censor websites. But by signing that stupid thing they can do it. And you are technically bypassing whatever shit the put in place and therefore you broke their code of whatever.

Well, what do you guys really expect from government indoctrination centers, uh, I mean schools? Unfair? Yes. Absolutely unjust? Yes. I mean think of all of those poor unsuspecting taxpayers who don’t even know you and are paying for your education.

In all seriousness, though, what they did is total crap. I wish your parents had enough money to sue the shit out of them. They can tell you that your breaking the rules by changing the browser settings to point to the proxy, but they shouldn’t legally be able to tell you that you have to take them down. That’s total crap!

A similar thing happened in my school a few years ago, also in the same state might I add. It went to court if I recall correctly and the court ruled that if the site is on a private server as in “private property” that the school system had no rights to on it other than blocking it from there network. Normally I would say fight back, but from reading some of the other comments it looks like you only have 90 days or so left. Good luck!

Ok - so - you made a proxy, used it to subvert the schools restrictions on internet usage, let everyone else subvert those restrictions, and are having a piss and moan about it?

They’re not treating you like you’ve done what you’ve done, they’re treating you a bit worse, I guess. But god damn, take some fucking responsibility.

Just wished to say this article made me shake my head at how ignorant some people can still be today. Calling into question the legality of a private webpage was not only stupid but reflects much on the staff that are working in Fairfax County.
I was able to find the Fairfax County edu webpage and sent a rather telling but well put together email about their need to correct their error and how allowing staff to bully like so will only result in their own legal troubles. I also informed them that stifling creativity like this is counter productive to education.

Jason

this looks like a job for 4chan! and the anonymous /b/tards

they should apologize to you… you did nothing wrong.

Anyone else feel like dDoSing the living hell out of that school?

thats such bullshit. fucking hate administration.

[…] School Claims its Illegal to Make Websites […]

[…] Source [Robert Afnani] […]

You know, that is quite discriminatory and if I were you, I would come in to your school with a lawyer (possibly a family friend or someone that is even just dressed nice and has a commanding presence) and have a sit-down with your Principal. Don’t do any talking yourself and let your lawyer or “lawyer” talk to the principal about the discrimination taking place and the consequences of singling out an innocent student. Watch how quickly they change their tune.

I had a similar thing happen to me back in 8th grade. I was expelled though, and I took the school district to court. They settled outside, and ended up paying for 4 years of my tuition at a private school.

hey man, i go to langley, and i think its fuckin bullshit that they would give you shit about your very own personal website on your own private server…even if it is a site to help students get past Websense, its still a private site, nevertheless. the most they could do is just block it, nothing more. take legal action!

Yeah man I had the same thing happen to me at my school when I put up a proxy and spread the word. I’m a senior and have stop the proxy making for now, but you can bet as soon as I graduate I’m putting up a proxy just in spite of my school administration. Its sucks. Students have no rights.

Robert,

You have nothing to worry about. The school has no jurisdiction over what you do outside of school, let alone what you create over the Internet.

The law is, you legally have to be age at least age 13 (in the US) to own a domain name and operate a website.

Put the proxy back up. You have the right too. Just make sure you put up a TOS or Service Agreement like the on that is on my site and you’ll be safe.

The school has no grounds to suspend you or expel you for something you own and operate outside of school.

Before expulsion, you’d usually have a hearing to the school’s board. I doubt they would expel you, especially after you show them support to your standing just by directing them to this blog post and all the comments and attention you’ve received.

-EGS from Digital Point Forums

Your case is really interesting. What I know is making a blog is legal and it is valid everywhere…How come they treat you like this? Even more, they tagged you as a hacker?… But although they have done all that bad things to you, I don’t suggest you to fight back. You can create another new proxy right? Free proxy are also available. Than, invite your friends to visit. Just let go and avoid the conflct. You can make the new one in a better place.

hey man! so how is it going? i hope your still standing strong and fighting for what you think is right!

how could making proxies be illegal?

check it out man, i have no respect for your school or its people and i think you should fuck over their entire system right now. however the fact that rather than stick up for yourself properly you just went home and posted it up on your blog proves nothing. so either do something about it or stop bitching.

seen as you blew your chance in the principles office the first time. (and its too late for that now, cause if you do anything you’ll just screw yourself over) find some cheap local newspaper. schools HATE bad press. and if they get enough it could cause some serious heat for the boss man.

ps. in the last year my school has made the front page off the city newspaper 3 times, 2 of which were me and i got 1 in the national newspapers and a few national radio quiz shows.

You poor baby. Yes, they abused their power. But you abused your freedom. Your failure to recognize this leaves you as less than the persecuted innocent you posture yourself as being. You set up your proxy for the purpose of circumventing the school’s network policies and allowing your friends to use the school’s network to visit sites the school doesn’t permit. The fact that nobody thought to write a rule that specifically covers what you have done doesn’t alter the fact that you did what you did to assist others in violating the Student Network Access Agreement.

DDOS that school and keylog them. that’ll teach them

[…] under a month ago, there was a huge battle, of sorts, between me and FCPS administrators on the legality of creating Internet-based proxies, outside of school time, on private servers. I […]

Maybe it’s a hint that you should get some hobbies so you wouldn’t have to resort to using proxies, not as much making them! Obviously, you broke policies by using the proxy and advertising it, even if it was by word of mouth.

whoah! you got to strike back by doin more proxies… as a person with connection i can tell you to “risk it”, in other words strike back by doin’ somethin more “illegal”, start makin’ more proxies with the names of the people that accused you (startin’ with the admistrator!)… cya

[…] and could be facing criminal prosecution for making proxies outside of school, as part of his job.read more | digg […]

I’m a outsider watcher. I’m not on your school.. region.. or country! I’ve just stumbled on your post.. and.. well.. it did got my attention!

It seems to me that your schoold doesn’t know what a black hat bad ass hacker is. Maybe it is time to show them.

We’ll take a look on their system.. they’ll never know what’d hit them..

Regards from..
..some place out there..

You need to contact an attorney ASAP.

I agree–that’s a load of BS. I’ve NEVER heard of it being illegal to have a private website… No matter what’s on it, as long as the content is lega. If the school doesn’t like it, they can block the site or something, but they CAN’T arrest you/expel you for it… I agree with the others in contacting a lawyer. I work a lot with computers in my spare time in school, and I think that I’d be absolutely offended if that happened. FIGHT BACK, and good luck.