According to the Middletown Journal, school administrators at Mason High School in Ohio are confiscating student cell phones and reading text messages to "to determine if the students attended private parties off school grounds during the weekend."
Students and parents at the school have contacted the ACLU who has warned school officials that their "current practice of seizing student cell phones and reading personal text messages was poor policy and unconstitutional."
Moreover, the ACLU countered that "Attendance at a private party that does not disrupt classes and does not occur on school grounds is none of the school's business. Private student social activities are issues for parents, not the school."
For many school administrators confiscating phones and blocking content seems like the easiest way to address the issue. But as Gen Y expert Anastasia Goodstein points out, doing so creates a “Lord of the Flies” environment where our kids are left to navigate the world of social networks, technology and online content without any direction.
Just like we have “drivers ed” to help them learn the rules of the road, we need to arm them with the digital literacy skills necessary to safely navigate the digital world in which they were raised.
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