Student Given Detention For Using Firefox [UPDATED]

An anonymous reader writes "Several sites are reporting that a student has been given detention for using Firefox to do his classwork. No, really. The student was in class, working on an assignment that necessitated using a browser. The teacher instructed him to stop using Firefox and to do his classwork, to which the student responded that he was doing his classwork using a 'better' browser (it is unclear whether the computer was the student's own computer or not). The clueless teacher (who called the rogue program 'Firefox.exe') ordered him to detention." Update: 12/17 20:09 by SM One of the school officials was nice enough to contact us and let us know this is a hoax. If you are planning on calling the school please refrain from doing so, I'm sure they have had enough excitement for one day.

Report it right

[Borealid]

It's actually funnier the way the teacher DID report it... 'foxfire.exe', not 'firefox.exe' as the /. blurb says.

UPDATE! Cory Doctorow just reported...

[Spy der Mann]

From boing boing's blog entry [boingboing.net]:

I just spoke to the principal of the high-school -- nice enough fellow. According to him:
* The kid altered the document after scanning it
* The kid was punished for mouthing off to the teacher, not for using Firefox
* The kid had been asked to work in Word on a resume (the assignment) and kept looking at the Web instead (and this was a recurring problem)
* The kid has admitted this and will be posting a followup/correction/retraction today

It appears that the student wasn't JUST using "a better browser". He was browsing OTHER STUFF on the web. Too bad.

Re:OSS is evil.

[DaSniper]

What IT People? You gotta be kidding me. My K-12 school of 500 students (my graduating class was 25 people) had a dedicated IT person. All questions about software running on the computer went through him. I worked for him my senior year. So schools that don't have IT people are schools that are interested in high technical understanding of todays world.

Re:detention for disobedience

[pongo000]

I work at a school district in IT, and I can assure you that some (too many) teachers can barely teach, let alone manage to run a classroom with computers.

I work at a school district as a math teacher. I also have several years of experience in IT industry, and have a master's degree in CS. I can assure you that *most* of our IT people know little to nothing about anything that doesn't involve Microsoft or Novell. Which means I just deal with IT problems myself, because I can usually *not* count on getting any level of help beyond the simple scripted responses one gets when they e-mail technical support.

Why do I bring this up? Because this sword you swing cuts both ways: I'm *definitely* not one of the teachers you describe, and *you* definitely don't sound like one of the IT people I describe. I think it's fair to say that not many teachers *or* school district IT employees are what you and I would describe as "computer literate beyond the most basic level."

BTW, your comment about installing software leads me to believe that this student may have also violated an AUP that specifically prohibits the installation of programs other than those endoresed by the school district. Regardless of how one reads "installation," it's a safe bet that no one would argue that copying an .exe to a Windows drive, even if it does not access the registry, constitutes "installation."

Re: detention for disobedience

[onecheapgeek]

Portable Firefox still sticks a directory in %homedir%\Application Data. That is writing to the hard drive, in a location that even a non-admin has full control over.

Re:OSS is evil.

[gt_mattex]

This entire story is possibly based on erroneous information.

http://www.bigspring.k12.pa.us/news.php?action=view_article&article_id=2130 [k12.pa.us]

so let's see:

[Surt]

The teacher instructed him to cease using firefox and to do his classwork, and he refused the teacher's instruction. Sounds like grounds for discipline to me.

And at least on my computer, my Firefox link refers to firefox.exe.

My advice to student: learn how to negotiate with authority better. If you hadn't gone in-your-face, you likely wouldn't be in this situation.

Nope, this is school policy in some places...

[Big Smirk]

My daughter, upon entering middle school in Montgomery County Maryland was forced to sign a computer usage agreement. It included among other things, a ban on 'other' browsers like Firefox _IN_SCHOOL_.

Only Microsoft's Internet Explorer (version not specified) is the approved, in-school browser. When I asked her computer science teacher about it. She agree 100% but said it was county policy and as much as she disapproves and recommends using a "good" browser, at school that was the policy.

UPDATE: Statement from the school

[ashitaka]

The following notice has been posted on the school's website. Looks like some attitude was involved which would make more sense. Too bad the principal isn't prepared to provide more details about the use of software.

Detention Letter Press Release
December 17, 2007

Recently, a file was uploaded to the Internet purporting to be a copy of a letter from Big Spring High School to a student regarding a two hour detention. The uploaded letter was an altered version of a detention letter sent to a student. Unfortunately, privacy concerns prevent the School District from giving a full explanation of the nature and source of the letter's alteration at this time. The Big Spring School District does have confirmation that the discipline letter was altered.

The reports, blogs and other sources on the Internet indicating that a Big Spring student was assigned detention for using the Firefox internet browser instead of Internet Explorer are untrue and were based on the fake letter. Detention is assigned in our schools after appropriate warnings are given, if students continue to engage in non-academic activities or fail to follow a teacher's directive during class time discipline can and will be assigned.

Sincerely yours,

John C. Scudder

High School Principal

Re:OSS is evil.

[evilRhino]

Your link's message sounds like damage control PR to me.

Fake?

[BeanBagKing]

http://www.bigspring.k12.pa.us/news.php?action=view_article&article_id=2131 [k12.pa.us]

Response to Internet Hoax
December 17, 2007

Recently, a file was uploaded to the Internet purporting to be a copy of a letter from Big Spring High School to a student regarding a two hour detention. The uploaded letter was an altered version of a detention letter sent to a student. Unfortunately, privacy concerns prevent the School District from giving a full explanation of the nature and source of the letter's alteration at this time. The Big Spring School District does have confirmation that the discipline letter was altered.

The reports, blogs and other sources on the Internet indicating that a Big Spring student was assigned detention for using the Firefox internet browser instead of Internet Explorer are untrue and were based on the fake letter. Detention is assigned in our schools after appropriate warnings are given, if students continue to engage in non-academic activities or fail to follow a teacher's directive during class time discipline can and will be assigned.

Sincerely yours,

John C. Scudder

Don't get me wrong, I'm usually not on the school's side, but a student with computer knowledge altering a document to gain popularity and to raise a cry from everyone on the internet over this isn't unheard of. So who are we to believe? High School Principal

Re:The Slashdot Effect

[rice_burners_suck]

The story was updated. It's a hoax. DON'T CALL THE SCHOOL!!!

Re:OSS is evil.

[jedidiah]

Nothing in that statement really contradicts the original story.

Of course the letter was altered. It was redacted.

I am not even sure that this statement could be considered a claim
that the original story was a hoax. At best it could be a somewhat
carefully crafted CYA statement that is meant to be taken as a
claim that the original story was a hoax.

Re:OSS is evil.

[jedidiah]

Howabout:

        This letter circulating on the internet is a fraud. No one at this
school has been given detention for insubordination related to the use
of an alternate web browser.

        Be clear. Get to the point. Act like you're someone who teaches
other people how to communicate.

        My high school rhetoric teacher would use this in his "introduction
to rhetoric in advertising".

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:OSS is evil.

[Eivind]

"\n" is *defined* to be newline.

"\n" will be one thing on unix, another on Windows, just like endl.

Using the equivalent of \cr\lf would have the problems you mention and thus be worthy of a loss of points.