News Articles

Student TEXTING

By N. Olsen
25 Jan

Parents & Students ---- cell phone ownership and access to social networks (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc) provide our youth with unlimited access to one another. In these virtual meeting places, people often post (SAY) things that would never be uttered in person--this should not happen. We have school policies that prohibit the use of cell phones during the school day--however, students are still using them and perhaps, we need to focus more on appropriate use than on fighting to keep them from being used. If this is the direction we need to move, we must have parents on side and engaged in teaching/reinforcing ethical and responsible use of these technologies.

One of our parents informed us of a new online service to promote responsible networking (http://www.texted.ca/app/en/). Please check it out and use it as a springboard to having a discussion with your child.

Just this week, in the United States, schools were stripped of their authority to deal with "cyber-bullying" that originates outside of the school. This means if it happens at home (away from school)--the school can't take any action to deal with it. Sadly, what happens in the USA, all too frequently, soon happens here in Canada.

As a school, we petition parents to monitor what your children do with the technology in your home--please join us in teaching our youth/your children to be kind and responsible in their use of these exciting new communication tools.