(no subject)
finally, after three days, internet is back up at my house.
My mom informed me today that the Merrimack Police Department has plans to monitor the MySpace accounts of Merrimack School District students. The plan has developed thanks to a request for all Merrimack Middle School students names' be searched on the networking site and then monitored carefully made by Mr. Housemeyers. The request was then considered and expanded to apply to all Merrimack-enrolled students. The MPD intends to look for contents of sex (including inuendos, activity, promiscuity, discimination, abuse, etc), drugs (abuse of, distributing/selling of, etc), drinking (abuse, where and when parties will occur/have occured in the past, etc), and, as described to me, internet stalking and harassment. With assistance from the Merrimack School District Technology Team (which includes all full-time computer technology teachers of the elementary, upper elementary, middle, and high schools and the district technology coordinator), the MPD will take a list of all Merrimack School District enrolled students and narrow it down to all MySpace users, or 'abusers' as they put the label.
Of course, this also means that, much like Livejournal, it will be blocked from all school computers.
I am not sure whether the MPD or School District plans to notify the community of this, but my mom, who if you were unaware is the full-time technology teacher at the upper elementary school, volunteered the information to me (because she wanted me to delete my account), so here I am volunteering it to you because I feel you have the right to know.
I kind of feel like the MPD should find better things to do with their time. I don't know, maybe I feel like my privacy is being slightly violated, but I also realize that MySpace is a public site. There are valid arguments for both sides, I suppose. Its just...even though I have nothing to hide, I'm not sure I want the school and police department monitoring my MySpace (redundant, eh?). Anyone else have anything to say on the issue of a student's rights in this situation?