Kid gets detention for using firefox

This is the kind of idiocy I've come to expect from our school system, the dumbing down of America's children goes on.

No can read! My eyes must not be as sharp as they used to be. :)

You know, there should be a job requirement for computer literacy.

If you are computer illiterate, then you are banned from their use till you become literate.

Dear Parent:
This is to inform you that your child's instructor is disconnected from the world today. While I may use technology in the classroom, I have no true concept of what the term "technology" means. I also wanted to use this space to inform you that I only chose teaching as a career for the long summers, the frequent breaks, and to coach sports. If personal gain by furthering my education interrupted any of these reasons, I would have to take my anger and frustration out on your student.

Please feel free to respond, but know the administration views you, the parent as an interfering busybody, and will support me long past the time I am necessary.

Maybe it is one of those corporate school sponsorships, I remember that McDonalds sponsored report cards? I mean maybe they are of the opinion that Explorer is a far better web browser. I think it is unfair to demand such qualifications which although useful are not important, what is important is that the teacher listens to the student and that the student can defend their rights.

There is a better pic here:

( on dissfunktional dot wordpress dot com, should the link not get through)

How about we all write to that school to inform them of what we think?

MUST USE INTERNET EXPLORER? That teacher needs to learn from her students! What happened to the words compassion and listening to children/? I only use Firefox- couldn't stand a computer without it..(has an add-on for tiny print and to zoom pages called Accessibar. (I could view the page with it..)..teachers today are more in it for pay then for actually "teaching" and changing a childs life..I don't mean all teachers-I am sure there are some really great ones..but too many teachers are "teaching" for the wrong reasons! But a computer teacher? Should already know about Firefox..and Opera..and all the other browsers out there...

here is the email for the principal of this school: jscudder at bigspring.k12.pa.us

for the love of god, please lets politely inform him of his errors.

i should mention that this e-mail was publicly available from the school district site here (http://www.bigspring.k12.pa.us/staff_directory.php?action=view_profile&person_id=494), so im not breaking any laws or anything :)

Considering this kid is in 11th grade, I would probably laugh at him/her and rip the paper up in his or her face.

Wouldn't it be obvious that the kid is doing the same work as the rest of his classmates? I mean all internet pages look exactly the same no matter what browser you use.

The kid got detention for being disrespectful and not listening to a direct instruction.

Most schools have to have a strict policy on usage of unauthorised software. Sure, the guy should have known what FF was, but that's not really relevant. The kid was using software that hadn't been cleared for use, the instructor asked for him to stop, he didn't. Seems pretty simple to me.

The school should have better control of computers. The fact that this kid had permissions to install the program on the computer is an oversight (though i do agree it is better and would have done the same) in the end it's just a detention for not following rules. Who actually made it through high school without a detention?

Portable Firefox installed on a thumb drive can get past through some pretty tight systems. I work at a large hosting company where everyone is pretty tech savvy. Even locked down terminal stations don't stop the employees from bypassing the net filters.

Installing Firefox is usually the first step to get pass the firewall that filters out all the adult and inappropriate websites. Once you have Firefox you can usually find extensions that make it easier to connect to proxies. IE on the other hand is much easier to lock down and monitor.

I have to agree with the teacher on this one. The teacher can't sit there and watch everything the kid is looking at. And why would he need to run Firefox? He is on his school's secure network so privacy shouldn't be an issue. Follow the school policy, don't install or run your own applications without permission.
Hopefully this kid will learn something from this. If your going to use Firefox to bypass net filters, use an IE theme so you don't get caught.

He probably had to sign some sort of computer use form, part of which usually says you can't install programs. So if his school board does do that, then he was in the wrong, as absurd as it might be.

This is a hoax. Please don't email the school as I'm sure they're already bombarded.

ugh, great -_-