FCPS: It’s Illegal To Make Websites! - Continued

There are some flaws to your logic here:

1. You may have a case of libel, but you won’t win. Libel requires that the author publishes information about you that they know to be false, with the intent of causing damage.

You said that the email ‘basically’ called you a criminal. Your choice of wording suggests that they said something along the lines of ‘watch out…he may be attempting to subvert the school’s IT policy’ (which by the looks of it, is what you did). Telling staff to be cautious of your actions is not considered libel.

Unless the email said that you are a criminal and that your acts have been proven illegal, then your case won’t hold water. Worse, if what you have done is eventually found to be illegal, then you have lost standing, as the email would be true.

2. You could be held responsible for any damages to the school’s servers by other users of your proxy server if it was forseeable that other students would use the proxy server to get around school IT protocols. Once you told your two friends, it is forseeable that they could havb told other people, and as it spreads, increase the amount of bandwidth usage.

3. It sounds like you created the proxy server to get around the school’s web filters. Sorry, but even though your proxy domain may not be illegal, it certainly violates school policy. You seem to think that in order for you to get in trouble at school, your act must run afowl of the law. In reality, school policy would be binding (yes, even in court) in the absence of a law guarenteeing a right to act in a particular manner. And before you start, this is not a free speech matter–computer access is not protected by the Constitution.

4. You don’t get to break rules because you disagree with them, or because you think that you are smarter than school officials, or because you think ‘it’s totally unfair. Like it or not, you created a way for people to subvert the school’s system. That looks like a policy infraction, and so the school has chosen to deny you access to computer use while on school time. It’s called punishment, not a facist regime that is oppressing your non-existing rights. I’d suggest talking to your philosophy teacher about making up your exam, deal with the fact that you broke the rules, and just focus on graduating so you can leave highschool behind.

S~

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.

I’m on your side. And for those two responders so far, you’re completely missing the point. God, even as a pre-law student, I know that one of the easiest defenses that can be used is that we are “innocent until proven guilty.” Scott, it is even a specific objection in court. You cannot claim to know the defendant’s state of mind. You can’t simply say “well, he must have made this to accomplish what happened.” You don’t know his motive or his intent. And although you may be right about him not having a case for libel, he DOES have a case to get his internet usage restored, and also to get a retake on his exams. If his “punishment” causes him to lose out on his education for NO REASON. You definitely have a case for defamation of character, and SLANDER!!! jesus, even a google search will tell you that. Slander is oral, libel is published in a fixed medium. And also: “You could be held responsible for any damages to the school’s servers by other users of your proxy server if it was forseeable that other students would use the proxy server to get around school IT protocols. Once you told your two friends, it is forseeable that they could havb told other people, and as it spreads, increase the amount of bandwidth usage.

While the actual damages could be negligible, if the bandwidth spike interfered with school operations, then that could (and will) be seen as violating the school’s IT policy.”

NO HE COULD NOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE! By the school, perhaps, but that’s what the darn lawsuit is for. And this whole “if it was forseeable” part is totally false! You can’t claim to be more of an expert on a person’s state of mind than they are.

“It sounds like you created the proxy server to get around the school’s web filters. Sorry, but even though your proxy domain may not be illegal, it certainly violates school policy. You seem to think that in order for you to get in trouble at school, your act must run afowl of the law. In reality, school policy would be binding (yes, even in court) in the absence of a law guarenteeing a right to act in a particular manner. And before you start, this is not a free speech matter–computer access is not protected by the Constitution.”

Uhhhhh… yes, the internet is a valid medium and is included in the first amendment. The only times that your 1st am. rights are in jeopardy is if your site promotes any illegal activity. regardless of what you think, there are other motivations behind creating and using proxy servers. a high school student who likes computers could simply be trying to educate himself further on applications for such. And his actions DO NOT violate the school policy. The school policy has no jurisdiction to dictate what happens outside of its network. In case you didn’t notice, the wording is as vague as it can be, but it still suggests that only actions made FROM OR ON the network are against the rules.

And since you are about to graduate, congratulations, and remember, as long as you were not still a minor at the time, your rights still stand, regardless of what Scott thinks.

And Scott, please don’t waste your time writing arduously long and asinine comments when the only flawed logic on this page exists in your post.

Put up a fight you coward!

What’s the point of graduating if it means allowing the school to bend you over and have their way with you? Stand up to them and if you don’t graduate with the rest of your class you will be a martyr. Whatever the case they will eventually have to let you graduate. And post the web address of your school so we can send them hate mail.

Robert-
The same thing happened to me at my high school.
Basically, I was using my own proxy on my own site (phpproxy) for EDUCATIONAL purposes. I was called into the vice principals office and threatened with suspension. They did say that I could fight back if I wanted and like your AUP, there was nothing in there about proxies (since I wasnt hacking or anything). I have always wanted to fight back, but my procrastivity-ness thinger always held me back and my punishment was not nearly as severe (basically a slap on the hand). I was wondering if you would like to make a site with me that battles for student rights where valid. Forget about FIRE and all those other organizations…people like us should stand up for ourselves, not hide behind companies…
-Nathan Heaps

PS- My high school is NRHS in NewRochelle, New York in case you were wondering.

Ah don’t worry, I support you! I understand how frustrating high school can be and how the administration is very unreasonable. My friend filmed a class prank, and I put it on YouTube, when I got a phone call from the administration telling me to remove the video. I could have probably taken further action against the administration at school, but I figure that it wasn’t that big of a deal.

It is a big of a deal. The school has no right whatsoever to control what type of content you create in the comfort of your own home. Maybe you could get in trouble for using a proxy website, maybe that can be against the rules. But suspension because you created the website is outrageous. I would personally take this very seriously, and either 1.) crash the school’s servers for fun or 2.) sue the school. It is very serious, and I would definitely want to get those people fired.

This is the same case where a Wikipedia article about my school was frequently edited by me. This lead to a problem because I added a “controversy” section in the article. Our administration actually held a meeting, and got people to raid the wikipedia article, removing all those “controversial” sections. Without the help of wiki’s admin, I would not be able to restore them.

This goes to show high schools make very poor attempts to understand technology and how it is used. They think that these actions are serious, but these actions are actions that are simple and out of their reach. I personally created multiple proxy websites as well as personal gaming websites just for my friend’s use. I will do that again and again, and if they threaten me, I will threaten them.

I’m sorry to say robert, but the fact remains that you violated school policy. Tough Luck, that you let your friends give the URL to the proxy out to other people, but this stuff happens. Proxies are NEVER educational, as proven with the content usage so that point that some people here have made is invalid. Stop making such a big fuss of it……

“Users should not do, or attempt to do, anything that might disrupt the operation of the network or equipment and/or interfere with the learning of other students or work of other FCPS employees”

That above, that is what you have done, especially on the matter of learning of other students. Even indirectly you are still to blame, for reducing the efficiency of students/IT resources.

“When I was pulled into the office and accused, I made sure to let the administrator know that I will get the masses of the Internet to support me on this. “Go ahead and do that”, she said, with a smug grin. Thank you all for making this fight for rights and respect easier.”

I’d watch it, doing so just makes you more of a criminal. This is just pure teenage angst. Welcome to life, suck it up man, if you cant print at school then print at home, its your own fault again.

Look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langley_High_School

Get the attention of various FCPS-disliking facebook groups:

http://hs.facebook.com/group.php?gid=29154535176

http://hs.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8941241204

http://hs.facebook.com/group.php?gid=7409474773

MAke your own group.

Print up flyers, send them to as many schools as you can.

Get the student body’s attention

I will admit that I did not read all the comments, so forgive me if this has already been brought up, but

“The use of the FCPS network is a privilege, not a right. Users should not do, or attempt to do, anything that might disrupt the operation of the network or equipment and/or interfere with the learning of other students or work of other FCPS employees.”

Even if this is the case, your proxy was created at home, outside the school network, and I don’t think you ever advertised it publicly as “hey guys use this to get onto bad websites and fuck around during class!” You didn’t break the rules at all.

I wonder if they honorarily suspended/expelled the Tor developers.

I’m a senior in a public high school in the US, and this kind of bullshit has really pissed me off. Unfortunately, students in public high schools have pretty much none of the constitutional rights granted to citizens; ones that might apply in this situation include due process of law and ex post facto (IANAL, just what I remember). I’ve just tried not to draw attention to myself regarding my school’s computers; i.e. I would’ve made sure the domain name didn’t have my name in it, if I created a proxy that I let other people find out about. I know it’s kind of late to tell you that ;), but I guess it’s something you should keep in mind for the future: just because you have certain rights doesn’t mean you should flaunt them. Not doing so tends to make things a lot easier in practical terms, even if you do feel like your rights are being violated.

One of the main purposes of high school is social control, of a form that can’t be implemented once we’re 18. By controlling the youth, they hope that some part of that control will remain even after those rights are “given” to us upon turning 18. So I guess you should stand up for your rights if you have to (as in this situation) but IMHO it’s much easier to avoid such situations if possible. Personally, I can’t wait to get out of this pigsty and go to college. Anywho, good luck; sounds like you’re a senior too, so in a few months you’ll be free of the fascist system for good

I encourage you to seek legal council on this. I think the administration clearly overreacted, and had no right to slander you in such ways.

In my opinion, they were probably justified in restricting computer access to your proxy (based on what I can see of the computer use policy), but were WAY out of line in making you out to be a hacker/terrorist.

Definitely get a copy of that letter, I’m sure many of us would be interested in reading it.

*Sigh*

It’s quite simple people!
He created a proxy server intended for use by only himself and a few close friends.

This proxy was created and maintained outside the school network, and he never personaly used it on the school network.
One of his friends told someone else and it spread like wildfire.

What the IT folks at his school should have done at that point was simply block the proxy and the problem would be gone.

The only thing Robert did wrong here was that he did not change the password for his proxy, and tell his friends that this is not intended for school use.
Only use outside of school.

It’s not his responsibility to babysit the IT people at his school.

The administration clearly have no idea what they are doing if you ask me.

PS. what is your progress on this case anyway?
Have you spoken to anyone on the school board during the weekend?

I would also like to appeal to your sense of common sense and refrain from suing the school.
It seems that no one thinks of what effect this might have on their budget and possibly the effect it might have on the schools ability to educate the students.

If you want to hurt them, be the bigger man and play it smart.
Lawsuits are not always the answer, and are viewed quite differently in the US then most other places.
And if you ask me, not for the better.

Greetings from Norway btw.

Hello! It seems we have a pre-law student, here. And he appears to have a monopoly on logic. I’ll do my best to keep up.

“Uhhhhh… yes, the internet is a valid medium and is included in the first amendment.”

The First Amendment states, “Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech”. Congress did not write the acceptable use policy at Langley High School, which the student signed. This is a matter of contractual law, and not freedom of speech.

“The only times that your 1st am. rights are in jeopardy is if your site promotes any illegal activity.”

Have you read the Bill of Rights? The First Amendment does not make distinctions regarding the type of speech, nor promotion of illegal activity. Go to a rally for same sex marriage, or marijuana legalization to see people exercising their first amendment rights to advocate illegal activities. You’re wrong.

“And his actions DO NOT violate the school policy. The school policy has no jurisdiction to dictate what happens outside of its network. In case you didn’t notice, the wording is as vague as it can be, but it still suggests that only actions made FROM OR ON the network are against the rules.”

Your emphasis fails to make your point. Running a web site that facilitates circumvention of network access restrictions is reasonable grounds for suspicion of a user’s activities. The student agreed to this code of conduct before ever touching the computers, and agreed that privileges of access could be revoked at any time.

The wording is vague so that what counts as an offense is open to interpretation by the school, and not the student. You’re going to have to do better than misinterpreting the Bill of Rights to get him out of his agreement.

I agree with you Scott, Mr. Afnani seems to think that school policy is not violated until someone does something illegal.

Robert, there’s going to be a mess of lawyers trying to convince you that you can win a case. It’s just a ploy to get at the investment capital you like blogging about.

All the money and lawsuits in the world will never get you respect. It’s just special treatment you want, to be patted on your head an told you’re important. Grow up, and be grateful you haven’t been expelled yet.

[…] regarding student rights. I’d like to take a second to thank visitors from Fark.com for … credit : […]

Easy fix… despite your ad hominem remarks, I’ll try to be civil. As to your comment about the 1st amendment: In a court of law, I would have made a perfectly valid argument. Despite the actual wording of the amendment itself, you are entitled to freedom of speech, which includes the internet, and that was my point. Just because something was created for circumventing a network does not mean that it had to have been made for a specific network. And that thing I said about a website promoting illegal activity was in reference to sites that contain things like child pornography and the like. I understand that people are allowed to publicly disagree with laws and statutes, and thank god for that, but in case you were to blazed at that marijuana rally, actual usage of marijuana or whatever youre trying to promote the legalization of, will result in arrest, just as having a same sex marriage at a rally would simply result in that marriage not being recognized. How exactly again did I misinterpret the 1st amendment? If it isn’t illegal to make proxy websites (and its not), then the school has grounds for suspicion, but not revocation of his internet usage, and certainly he is not responsible for their bad timing in calling him into the office (which sounds malicious anyway). It’s nice to see you can use teh surch enjins, but I wasn’t trying to convince him to hire me… I would have to have already taken the bar for that. There are other statutes to be brought up in conjunction with 1st amendment rights btw, so just because you graduated 8th grade, don’t think you know the legal system inside and out. Yeah i forgot to be civil, but ur a jerk.

Oh and in response to someone saying that proxies are not educational… learning how to make a proxy website may be relatively easy, but you still acquire a new skill in the IT area, which (in case youre still stumped) is also known as educating yourself. It’s the same as reading a physics textbook for fun and doing some experiments. I was going to school and working, sorry I wasn’t prompt in getting back to you all, but some of you are kinda dumb, sorry.

One more thing cuz I forgot to mention where i alluded to the contractual law part of the equation… it’s actually the statement that you claimed “failed to make my point”. Let me rephrase it so you can join the myriad other people who DO understand. DESTPITE the vagueness of the policy, it STILL makes clear that the only actions that can be construed as against the policy are those that were enacted FROM OR ON the network. Does that clear it up for you? Its NOT vague enough to beat my argument in other words. Understand yet? No? Well that’s to be expected, but at least people can see that you’re an idiot now.

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