School Suspends Students For Finding 'Racy' Photo Teacher Accidentally Put On Their iPads
from the that-seems-backwards dept
We've seen schools that ridiculously blame and suspend their students for videotaping misdeeds by staff or faculty... but this latest story is really bizarre. A female middle school teacher in Anderson, Indiana somehow (and the details are not at all clear) put a "racy" photo of herself onto a school-issued iPad that students were using. They found the photo... and the school suspended the students. Again, the details are pretty hazy. The photo was described by one of the students as a "topless" photo, but a police report on the incident said it was "from the neck down, with partial exposure." At the link above, Kash Hill suggests this sounds more like "a classic no-face, no-shirt shot that involved a bra and possible cleavage but no actual nudity."It's also not entirely clear how it got onto the iPad, though the suggestion is that it may have had something to do with Apple's iCloud syncing across devices. It's entirely possible that the teacher used her own account for her own iPhone and the school iPad, leading to the images from her phone syncing to the iPad. No matter what, it makes no sense that the students are suspended and may face even more punishment:
Those students have been suspended and threatened with expulsion.The students, quite reasonably, are infuriated at this:
"It's not our fault that she had the photo on there," Troutt said. "We couldn't do anything not to look at it, if it just popped up when he pressed the button. It was her fault that she had the photo on there. Her iPhone synched to it. She had to have pressed something to make all of her photos synch on there."When asked about it, the school district's assistant superintendent Beth Clark told the media "the students' punishment will not be changed." Hopefully the students will seek to get the suspension overturned in some way, because based on the details this seems absolutely ridiculous.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: photo, students, suspension, teacher
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Or rather more than one..
Still, you have to be really incompetent to insist in keeping the punishment after the developments... Did this Beth Clark give any reasonable explanation to keep the suspension?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
I patented 'seeing boobs on the internet'. Had you done so, you would be in trouble.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
"But Mr Teacher, there is a lot of boobies in this book."
"YOU ARE EXPELLED! Looking through educational material provided to you by a licensed education professional? FOR SHAME!"
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
1 - Learn how technology works.
2 - Punishing children for your screwups NEVER ENDS WELL.
3 - Giving explicit material to children and providing the method of its delivery.
Oh FFS... I know why they insist on punishing the kids.
Zero Tolerance Policies anyone?
We have a policy that says you get x punishment for misusing our technology... even when its our fault.
First lawsuit exposing my minor to porn. Kiss your career goodbye, you pervert out to warp children!
This is full on CYA, we followed policy in this matter blah blah blah...
The real losers will be the kids, who will have even more embarrassment and issues about sex and naked people as they grow up.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
LOSERS? Dude, it's free amateur porn!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
Good luck with that. Damn near impossible for a union worker.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I do hope the details are just screwed up because punishing the students based upon only viewing the image she screwed up and synced to the machines is beyond idiotic.
Now if students being suspended make harassing comments towards the teacher, then they deserve suspension.
The details are what matters. Something must have happened, like the students telling everyone "hey Mrs Teacher is in her bra is on the iPad" or some comments made.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
This school has a policy about the acceptable use of technology, and there is no doubt in my mind there is a section on if we catch you with porn X will happen.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
If they knew how it all worked, they might make that connection that sex = babies. Then who is going to take all of these DNA tests?!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
My comments clearly state that if they were suspended it must have been because of comments made by the students or potential for harassment.
If this happened to a female student, she would have been harassed by teachers and students alike. And I was taking a jab at the students who did nothing and who attacked Amanda Todd.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
We have a policy, we ALWAYS follow policy.
This is how we learn to respect each other and society.
Really this is how they operate, it makes no freaking sense because they no longer get to make objective decisions and as everything is spelled out in their policy document and you have to sign off on it you accept we do EVERYTHING by the book. Even when it makes no freaking sense.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
"Now if students being suspended make harassing comments towards the teacher, then they deserve suspension."
Hunh?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Before I can decide
But really you have to love when someone doubles down on dumb when proven to be wrong.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Before I can decide
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
What's on Beth Clark's computer?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
It may be appropriate if the first thing they did was try to show everyone and/or disperse the image.
Something just seems suspicious about kids behaving well...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
The reaf WTF
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: The reaf WTF
Plus the idiotic belief that throwing these new tech devices at our kids will somehow magically fix the education system--which is funny because my grade school kids, who have minimal (less than an hour a week) time on computers or tech gadgets at home, consistently get high marks in school.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: The reaf WTF
That's too bad for you, because I learned how to program in Basic on an Apple IIe in 8th grade... in a programming class offered at my junior high. Sounds like your school didn't bother to hire the right teacher to use the technology. Don't blame the school for buying technology; blame the school for not implementing it properly.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: The reaf WTF
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: The reaf WTF
http://www.someecards.com/usercards/viewcard/MjAxMS04NWQ0ODAzYmNhNzZmMTIw
NSFW
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Bit early
There simply 'has' to be more to this story than just an 'accident'. I'm not defending the school quite, but I find it impossible to believe this is the entire story.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Bit early
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Bit early
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Bit early
Great, the kids can put their games/music/movies on it--how educational. Another fine example of a school board wasting money on something because it's "new and shiny" without having a clue how to use it in an educational setting.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Bit early
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Bit early
The best rule in IT is, if you can't limit the device/software to conform to your requirements/policies, don't allow its use. It saves you from a lot of headaches.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Bit early
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Bit early
I, for one can't think of any legitimate use for an iPad in an educational setting that couldn't be accomplished some other less expensive way. It's a toy. We should be using our time and money actually teaching our kids something useful, not giving them shiny toys to play with and calling it education.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Bit early
It sounds like this district has serious issues with kids not giving a damn, so show them the trapping of success and they will want them. They will get them and start their own debt treadmill and the corporation will have made new drones to move to the next corporation.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Bit early
I'm currently trying to sort out why Apple's recommended course for action for buying software for employees to use is to buy a code to give to the employee to redeem in their PERSONAL iTunes acct. So if the employee leaves, the software does too.
Straight up, Apple is moving farther and farther away from being functional in corporate/enterprise/educational environments, yet because they are trendy everyone wants them, and it is causing huge headaches for everyone.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Bit early
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Bit early
1) This was on the teacher's iPad, not on all student iPads (if they even have them).
2) The reason for the punishment was the students went looking around the iPad (and into the teacher's documents folders) instead of sticking to the two applications which they were authorized to use. Certainly, maybe only one student browsed the directories and the others were not interested in doing any such thing, and some are being punished for what only one had done. Then again, maybe not.
3) The teacher may have been a bit irresponsible, but that image may have been automatically synced to the device without her knowledge (as such cloud crap is wont to do), and it wouldn't matter if the kids were doing only what they were supposed to be doing.
4) But it likely never would have been an incident if the documents browsed did not contain a "racy" image.
5)Although it also would likely not have become an incident if they saw it, closed it and shut up. Who the hell would have known what they had seen then?
Everyone is a bad actor at some level here.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Bit early
There simply 'has' to be more to this story than just an 'accident'. I'm not defending the school quite, but I find it impossible to believe this is the entire story.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
double standards
think about it.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: double standards
But now that it's a bunch of boys, clearly it's some naive innocent school teacher who is unfamiliar with technology being brutally taken advantage of by evil cisprivileged males who may or may not have been trying to blackmail her into being their sexual slaves because all men are like that.
At least this is the story that several news/opinion sites and blogs would want you to believe because of their kneejerk reaction to the digested, watered-down fact of "The teacher can't operate her phone and distributed light pornography to students by accident".
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Mike, you have omitted the most important detail!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Mike, you have omitted the most important detail!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
some highlights...
"To improve graduation rate from 57% to 87% in five years"
So they are doing a BANG up job.
Corporal Punishment, you can be punished for what you did on summer vacation, drug testing, uniforms, spelled out punishments for fireworks in the halls and arson, and the right to opt out of supplemental instruction if you have objections to the material.
Yeah this isn't a place built on overreaching control.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: some highlights...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: some highlights...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: some highlights...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: some highlights...
I also wonder how they define "pornographic, obscene or sexually explicit material", because from the story it sounds like this image was something that could be seen in a Victoria's Secret ad...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: some highlights...
they knew it was obscene when they saw it.
Moreso I think they were hoping to fear the kids into shutting up about the incident and well that worked out really well for them.
They played within their rules, but the downside is the public really dislikes stupid enforcement of the rules.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: some highlights...
And that would cover the reason for suspension.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
The Emporer's New Clothes
One child on the sidewalk, pointed at the Emperor, laughed, and said, “Look, mommy! The Emperor is naked as a jaybird!”
The Emperor's secret police heard that. Everyone heard that. It was on national TV. The Emperor's secret police immediately arrested the child... and the child's mother. And father. And siblings. They were all sentenced to ten years in the re-education camps.
The End.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Stupid Part
Stupid part of following policy blindly is that it shows just how stupid you are. If you can't understand objectivity and how to apply policies (hint: not blindly), then you should not be a principal.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Stupid Part
This is the problem with creating a zero tolerance game.
It protects you from being hassled over uneven enforcement, but removes the chance to avoid looking really stupid.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Par for the course
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
I can just see some student getting assaulted and the school blaming the victim.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
They have around 20 pages of overreaching rules and punishments listed, but if they discover lice they don't have to alert the parents. It is a parents job to check their kid daily.
It pretty much has a bootcampish feel to all of the rules and responsibilities placed on the students.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I think I get it
I think the reason for the suspension is stated in the kid's quote above. They saw that the teacher had accidentally synced a personal device to the iPad so they "pressed the button," i.e. snooped.
Notice the kid is blaming the teacher for syncing her phone to the iPad. He seems to think that once she did that he had the right to go through her stuff.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: I think I get it
The iPad is school property. Her phone is not.
Her phone should not have been connected to the school computer and the iPad should NOT have been connected to her account.
They were playing a game and then the picture happened.
Would anyone with a couple of iThingys please explain what happens when they sync? Is there a notification popup or something?
Her stuff did not belong on school property, but sure blame the kids.
Idiot.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: I think I get it
My question is, why does a school have a device for use by the students that allows you to put whatever the hell you want on it? If you can't lock that ability out, they have no business using them in an educational setting. If they can be locked they need to get some IT people that know what the hell they are doing. In any case the school was extremely negligent in using these devices in an educational setting.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: I think I get it
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: I think I get it
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: I think I get it
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: I think I get it
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: I think I get it
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: I think I get it
I'm sure that sweet, innocent teacher who is taking topless photos of herself is completely blameless for not understanding how her phone works and letting it sync to someone else's device. Clearly these evil students were trying to go through her stuff like the untrustworthy rapscallions they are.
It's like how I sync my phone to the display ipads at the apple store, wait behind the counter for someone to look at it the wrong way, and then I jump out and beat them with a crowbar. If they didn't want to get beaten with a crowbar, they shouldn't have been 'going through my stuff'.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: I think I get it
I'm sure that sweet, innocent teacher who is taking topless photos of herself is completely blameless for not understanding how her phone works and letting it sync to someone else's device. Clearly these evil students were trying to go through her stuff like the untrustworthy rapscallions they are.
It's like how I sync my phone to the display ipads at the apple store, wait behind the counter for someone to look at it the wrong way, and then I jump out and beat them with a crowbar. If they didn't want to get beaten with a crowbar, they shouldn't have been 'going through my stuff'.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: I think I get it
I'm sure that sweet, innocent teacher who is taking topless photos of herself is completely blameless for not understanding how her phone works and letting it sync to someone else's device. Clearly these evil students were trying to go through her stuff like the untrustworthy rapscallions they are.
It's like how I sync my phone to the display ipads at the apple store, wait behind the counter for someone to look at it the wrong way, and then I jump out and beat them with a crowbar. If they didn't want to get beaten with a crowbar, they shouldn't have been 'going through my stuff'.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: I think I get it
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: I think I get it
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: I think I get it
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: I think I get it
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
She is a teacher?
More importantly, here is a woman dumb enough to take a picture of herself in some state of nakedness (enough for it to be some kind of a problem) and was inept enough to in some way allow this picture to end up in the hands of multiple children. Why was she teaching our youth to begin with?
One of the first questions on a job application for a teacher should be: "Are you an idiot?"
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: She is a teacher?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: She is a teacher?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: She is a teacher?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
The reason many school administrators...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
So check this out
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Beth Clarke is a lawsuit waiting to happen
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
As to why the teacher synced to her personal account, my district just issued some ipads, but won't pay for any apps. So to buy any apps, you have to be synced to a personal account (for the Credit Card). I'm sure this is what happened to this unfortunate teacher. But these kids are being railroaded, for sure. Lawsuit time. But then again it's Indiana!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
In any case I can't see what's the problem with some nude pictures with no bad intent. It's no different than any other embarrassing little thing, you should just laugh about it afterwards. Big deal.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
What? - you have been reading ahead in the textbook without permission? ... You completed the homework exercises in advance??? - Well, that is a tazing you little upstart.
This is a candidate for the lame excuse of the year award.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
So, if a student put something on their iPad..
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Since the district obviously did not lock the ipads down to privent access to iPhotos, there was nothing on the screen saying that accessing the iPhotos app was forbidden. Since the app was not protected by passwords or some kind of authentication system, they cannot be accused of accessing the app without permission.
I smell a lawsuit brewing here, and I hope the parents sue the school out of existence.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
iPad not from ACSC
[ link to this | view in chronology ]