Earlier this fall, I had the pleasure of appearing on a podcast hosted by Cheri Roberts. The show, called “Challenging the Rhetoric,” is an interesting weekly show in which Roberts leads “an engaging analysis of the week’s current news and events.” Recently, Roberts has created a spin-off program called “A Sickness of Silence,” a special…
Over the last several years, I have had the pleasure of working with the National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification (NASDTEC). The organization recently issued its call for proposals to present at the 2016 Annual Conference next June in Philadelphia, and I am pleased to announce that I have been selected…
2015-10-30 Minimizing the Risk of Cybertraps for Educators from Frederick Lane A presentation delivered to the Massachusetts Association of School Personnel Administrators on October 30, 2015 in Shrewsbury, Mass. Earlier in the MASPA meeting, four attorneys from the Office of Professional Practices Investigations in the Legal Office of the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary…
Three students at Ponderosa High School in Ponderosa, CA are now facing child pornography charges following two separate incidents over the past two weeks. In a press release issued on October 17, the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office announced the discovery a sexually explicit video involving three minors: On October 14, 2015, at Ponderosa High…
In an all-too-rare victory for common sense over prurience, a Utah middle school teacher was recently informed that she will not be fired for her slightly risqué Instagram photo gallery. Mindi Jensen, who teaches at the North Sanpete Middle School in Moroni, Utah, used the pseudonym “minscakes” to post photos of herself working out, posing…
A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to do another interview with Chicago Tribune business reporter Becky Yerak (@beckyyerak) about the privacy implications of the growing relationship between home insurers and companies that produce “smart” products for homeowners. Her article, “Insurers’ discounts for smart home devices raise privacy concerns,” ran last week in…
2015-10-19 Teens, Technology, and Suicide: Understanding Causes, Effects, and “Bullycide” from Frederick Lane A Featured Presentation delivered with Joanne Harpel, JD, MPhil, at the 2015 Annual Conference of the New York State School Boards Association on October 19 and October 20, 2015 in New York, NY. If you are interested in discussing a presentation or…
In the summer of 2014, an undercover police detective in New Zealand began trading images of child pornography with a man in Anchorage, Alaska. The detective forwarded information about the exchange to Alaska law enforcement officials, who used the data to obtain a search warrant for the home of Daniel Alan Brown, a teaching assistant…
A 45-year-old science teacher at Santa Ana High School was arrested in early September “on suspicion of having sex with a 16-year-old female student” two years earlier. According to the Santa Ana Police Department, Alvar Albert Gonzalez, met the victim in one of his classes and allegedly had sex with her during her school lunch…
A confluence of some of the most disturbing trends in American society led to the lockdown Wednesday of Highland High School in Pocatello, Idaho. In the wee hours of the morning on October 7, an unnamed 15-year-old male had a Facebook Messenger exchange with another person, age and gender unknown. A screenshot of a portion…
