First, a presentation is given to the admin & faculty.
The focus is liability issues that they may face if they fail to take adequate measures to protect the students and/or educate them of the risks and dangers they may face while using the Internet.
Liability issues can also arise if they fail to act or respond when a student is victimized or victimizing others.
Next audience is the parents.
They are reminded that safety and security of their children is their primary responsibility.
The schools, the social workers, law enforcement, and all others resources, are there to assist when necessary.
BUT...
It IS the parent's primary responsibility to protect their children.
It IS also their responsibility to instill in their children ethical standards and behavior.
This should be done before the child even walks through the front doors of the school on their first day! Just like they should be toilet trained, they should already have some of the basics of acceptable social behavior. Simply, they should have good manners!
The school will help re-enforce what the parents have instilled in their children.
Not the other way around, where the teachers are expected to educate the child on acceptable social behavior, which usually is not re-enforced when they go home at the end of the school day.
The last audience are the students themselves.
And the focus is to make them aware of the risks and dangers of the Internet, by explaining to them the environment rather than the technology in an non-authoritative manner.
They need to understand that their online activities and offline activities interact are tied to one another. They also need to understand that they actions, online and off, can have dire consequences and that the decisions they make online are irreversible.
And finally, they need to learn that they are responsible for their actions - period!
The reason I adhere to the above scheduling of presentations is that:
1)
The adults will understand what each other's role is.
Often times the parents expect the school to be responsible to taking some kind of action and like wise the schools think the same of the parents. This lag in communication can result in the child being seriously victimized, for example in the case of an online predator targeting a student.
2)
The adults need to be exposed to the technology that the students are using.
How can a parent/teacher teach a child about being responsible when operating a motor vehicle when they themselves don't drive? The adults don't have to be dyed in the wool "techies", but they should be familiar with the technology their children are using.
3)
When it comes to responding to an actual physical threat, the child needs to turn an adult to protect them. The parents should always be the first ones they can turn to.
Other responsible adults are their "back up" protectors, in cases when/where a parent can not intervene. A child should always be able to seek their parents' protection. It is very sad when a child can not go to their parents for help, and worse, if there are no other adults to help them.
I try to adhere to sequence of presentations as much as possible.
However, depending on the situation, I may detract from this agenda.
Please contact me if you having questions that I have not addressed above.
Mahalos
