The following comment appeared under my post "potpourri." I thought you could all help out Will...
TIME OUT! TIME OUT! TIME OUT! TIME OUT! TIME OUT! TIME OUT!
Hope I got your attention, this is very IMPORTANT.
I have an URGENT message. Today in AP Gov, Meyer brought up a very interesting bill called the DELETING ONLINE PREDATORS BILL, despite the nice title, the bill will destroy what we and the Arapahoe High School staff have attempted to create. Please research this bill. The gist of the bill is that all access to chat rooms, BLOGS, myspace,and perhaps even simpler pages that might allow students to display any kind of personal information will be denied to students.
This bill will be extremely detrimental to the education, will destroy everything we have worked hard to establish, and eliminate the benefits to internet in the classroom that many of you enjoy. THIS BILL PASSED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES BY A VOTE OF 410-15. Our time window is incredibly short to take any kind of action against this bill before it is passed by the Senate and it WILL be passed. We must take action now, IF THERE IS A WAY TO ORGANIZE A MEETING FOR CONCERNED STUDENTS I WOULD BE GRACIOUS FOR INFORMATION ON HOW TO GET A ROOM AND ANNOUNCEMENTS.
Any strategies on how not to get this bill passed would be greatly appreciated, I have a few, but I would prefer one in which I don't have to be suspended or expelled :).
15 comments:
urgent is right. Thanks for the update, will. I had no idea it entailed stuff like blogs. I thought it was more stuff like enabling police to take interventive (if that is a word) action earlier. Stupid me. But I think a meeting would be great. If we dont have time to get a room (that sounds awkward) we could just do it on the lawn or something like that.
Oh. It is the national bill. I think there is also some sort of state thingy going on about online predators that includes a microsoft workshop.
Here is a good link that describes the act.
Deleting Online Predators Act of 2006
Thanks whoever set this up, it was done very quickly.
Maybe we could "invite" some of the people advocating for/against this bill to visit our sites. We probably should go through and see if there is any spelling and such changes we can make before we do that, I don't even know if that can be done...but it might be worth a try...
I highly suggest looking at the site that Benh suggested. For mor information, see his second posting.
I have to make the prediction that most of the debate around this bill will be centered around what is constituted as "adult supervision."
The presence of teacher moderators on the blogs may or may not count as supervision, which would make it ok. But that hugeuncertainty is where the greatest danger lies.
SO who have you contacted? Your Senators? Your representatives? Peers? Parents? The election cylce might give you some time, but...
Today in my history class we talked about this bill. Crosby brought up an interesting point: is blocking all these sites really going to stop kids from getting into dangerous places. Let's face it, we're teenagers, our greatest joy in life is defying authority. There are some who would just find other ways to get to certain sites. So basically kids would still have access to the "bad" sites and the good sites that like blogger that we use for school related purposes would be blocked.
Lane C. Good point. I really like the connection to "challenging the system."
Does anyone have an idea on exactly WHEN this bill is supposed to be passed? Is it like within this month, or is it within a year? Five years?
Yes, the bill has already passed the house, which is why it is so urgent. It is expected to pass in the senate.
To throw this out there:
Does anyone think that this bill will be spurred into passing with the Mark Foley Scandal?
I don't know...maybe...but look at the dates...
Any way...are we going to have a meeting? We might be able to have a meeting before or after school sometime...but after school is marching band...I don't know how many people are in that...
Thanks for up-dating me on the passing date thing...
The bill will be passed, the trick is a "loophole" in the bill, we just have to convince Congress to define what sites will be banned according to certain definitions of what a "chat room" and other banned articles are. The loophole essentially says that within one-hundred-twenty days of the Bill's passage (definitely after the mid-terms) these articles must be defined. We cannot stop passage, the Bill is just too "nice" to vote against, but we can change the definitions.
I still need to know how to get a meeting set-up.
I agree, hikingout. Or get some sort of legal precedent on what "adult supervision." is. I am open to just about any time for a meeting. I can make room for something like this. Although it seems it has petered out.
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