---------------------- Forwarded by David H Kirshner/dkirsh/LSU on 05/06/99
10:36 AM ---------------------------
Konopak <jkonopak who-is-at ou.edu> on 05/05/99 03:46:24 PM
To: Kthynoll who-is-at aol.com
cc: EDSOASIS who-is-at LISTSERV.SYR.EDU(bcc: David H
Kirshner/dkirsh/LSU)
Subject: Re: Kids Can Now E-Mail Tips On Their Violent Peers
am i the only one around here with serious (i mean SERIOUS AS A
HEARTATTACK) reservations about the mad pursuit of turning everybody into
quasi-govt snitches?
Seems to me that was one of the reasons we were told to hate the former
soviet union: cuz they encouraged parents to rat out their kids and vice
versa to the political orthodoxy cops...
one of the main contributing factors in the recent spate of shootings in
schools has been the fact that kids were feeling marginalized (there's an
new idea: marginalized white kids!).
Now all over the country kids who dress "weird" or think "weird" (and it
doesnt have to be techno-nazi's, you only gotta be outside the jock/student
council circles to be id'd as a potential killer), or write "weird" are
gonna be singled out and labeled, not as just rebellious, but as incipient
killers...and watched...the regime of what foucault called
"governmentality" is founded upon surveillance...in case it escaped
attention, the panopticon (of Bentham) was designed for penal uses...it
took modern technology to place us all under its scrutiny, where we are
today (have a cookie?)...
and while we're on the subject:
a contributing factor in the littleton and other school shootings was the
anonymity of the schools, the fact that kids could disappear into the
cracks. this consequence grew from the wholesale adoption of the "factory"
model of schooling, adopted by the assimilationists in the early days of
the century, and perfected over the last 100 years, til only those
"products" (kids) from which the school derives profit (athletic
recognition or some other corporately valued attribute) are honored. It is
perhaps tooo late to bring this up, but learning is NOT a zero-sum game,
folks...and jocks/cheerleaders/poms/council are not the only valuable kids
in school; nor are they necessarily the one who succeed in school; and the
world was seldom changed by people who did well in school...
As if that wasn't bad enough, now there's reformers who want to PRIVATIZE
public schools and turn em into corporate profit centers!!! Am i missing
something, or isn't that another recipe for INCREASING the alienation of
kids, and further depersonalizing an already depressingly anomie-inducing
institution? Are these/you people out of their/your F******G Minds?
cheers, chers
konopak
At 11:23 PM 5/4/99 -0400, you wrote:
>Kids Can Now E-Mail Tips On Their Violent Peers
>
>www.msnbc.com
>
>5-2-99
>
>A nonprofit group that watches the Web for pedophiles and stalkers on Friday
>launched a new service: allowing kids who know of classmates, Web sites that
>threaten violence or suicide to e-mail their concerns along to authorities.
>
>The Internet, so often unfairly blamed as the cause of problems, can and
>should be the solution to problems. The KIDReportline is only one example of
>how the power of the Internet can be unleashed to help, not harm., -
>CYBERANGELS STATEMENT
>
>Responding to the Littleton, Colo., tragedy, the all-volunteer group
>Cyberangels said it would keep the identities of the children reporting the
>sites confidential, and would forward credible threats to police and school
>administrators.
>
>The service is aimed at those children 'afraid of reprisals' from school or
>classmates, says Cyberangels director Parry Aftab.
>
>FOR KIDS, NOT ADULTS
>
>Aftab, a lawyer who's been on the Net since 1992, will be reading and
>responding to the e-mail herself, offering not legal advice but advice that a
>mother would if her child asked "What should I do?"
>
>The first e-mail tips came from teachers and other adults, but Aftab
>emphasizes the service is for children, not parents or teachers who already
>know where to turn. "They don't need me for that," she says, "the ones who do
>are kids."
>
>The idea came to Aftab after a reporter writing about Littleton asked her who
>was responsible for ferreting out violent Web sites. No one should, was her
>immediate reaction, but after a restless night Aftab said she came to the
>conclusion that "there must be something we can do."
>
>NOT WEB POLICE
>
>Calling herself a Free Speech advocate, Aftab says Cyberangels is not in the
>business of actively searching for violent sites. "The tips have to come to
>me" and from a classmate about another classmate's Web site, she insists.
>
>In a statement, Cyberangels said its service, called KIDReportline, also aims
>to show the value of the Internet. "The Internet, so often unfairly blamed as
>the cause of problems, can and should be the solution to problems," it said.
>"The KIDReportline is only one example of how the power of the Internet can
>be unleashed to help, not harm."
>
>Tips can be e-mailed to <tipline who-is-at cyberangels.org
>
>Or, via the group's Web site at <www.cyberangels.org>
>Kathy Noll & Dr. Jay Carter
>Authors, "Taking the Bully by the Horns"
>http://members.aol.com/kthynoll/bully.htm
>kthynoll who-is-at aol.com
>