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“Do As I Say, Not As I Do”: Sexting Edition

According to a recently-released study by the Department of Psychology at Drexel University, nearly 9 out of 10 readers of this blog post (87.8%) have “sent or received a sexually suggestive message over the internet at some point in their lives.” And what’s more, you almost certainly think that sexting is awesome — 95.9% of…

WA Teacher Used Fake Facebook Page to Arrange Trysts with 15-yo Student

It’s been a disturbing couple of months at Evergreen High School in Vancouver, WA. In mid-June, science teacher Matthew Morasch was caught trying to shoot upskirt videos of female students. Now comes the news that Stephanie McCrea, a married theater and English teacher at Evergreen High, pleaded guilty on July 30 “to four counts of…

Rand Paul Takes History Prize in First GOP Debate

In general, the issues that I cover in this blog are fairly apolitical — there’s not a lot of difference between Republicans and Democrats when it comes to cyberbullying, cyberharrassment, or digital misconduct by educators. But when it comes to privacy and issues of national security, political divisions inevitably creep into the discussion. The first…

MN Teacher Uses School-Issued iPad to Take “Creepshots” of Students

A 38-year-old Mora High School teacher named Benjamin Rossow is facing 17 charges of interference with privacy following the discovery that Rossow used his school-issued iPad to take so-called “creepshots” of numerous female students. As the Washington Post explained last fall, creepshots “are essentially just what they sound like: sneaky, surreptitious photos of a person’s,…

YouTube Video of Burlesque Performance Costs VA Teacher Her Job

Burlesque — or at least the tassled-and-g-stringed version that arose in America — hit its peak of popularity in the early 20th century, before a combination of Prohibition and adult movie theaters largely wiped it out. Over the last twenty years or so, however, there has been a growing revival of the art form that…

“Innocuous” Photo of Breast Grope Causes Problems for PA Teacher

A goofy but reportedly “innocent” photo posted to Instagram has landed a Rochester (PA) Area School District teacher in hot water. At the District’s prom in May, high school chemistry teacher Amy Douglas posed for a photograph with two female students. According to the description published by a local Web site, BeaverCountian.com, the photo clearly…

UK’s South West Grid for Learning Promotes “Cybertraps for Educators”

At the 2014 Annual Conference of the Family Online Safety Institute, I had the pleasure of meeting of Ken Corish, the Senior Manager responsible for Compliance and the UK Safer Internet Centre at the South West Grid for Learning, a not-for-profit charitable trust in the United Kingdom that provides a wide range of products, services…