By Dr. Amy Werbel Author of the forthcoming book Lust on Trial: American Art, Law, and Culture During the Reign of Anthony Comstock [Columbia University Press, 2018] A new word has entered common parlance and it bodes well for the future of democracy: Trumpism. The tendency of Donald Trump to run his campaign and his…
2017-05-02 Cultivating a Culture of Cybersafety from Frederick Lane A presentation delivered at Putnam/Northern Westchester BOCES on May 2, 2017. If you are interested in discussing a presentation or professional development program for your organization on this topic, please contact me for information regarding my rates and availability.
2017-04-27 Art & Ethics: Censorship from Frederick Lane A presentation delivered to the Art & Ethics class at Fordham University on April 27, 2017. If you are interested in discussing a presentation or professional development program for your organization on this topic, please contact me for information regarding my rates and availability.
2017-02-20 Selfie-Absorbed: Body Image, Narcissism, and Empathy in the Smartphone Era from Frederick Lane A presentation delivered twice at the Alaska Society for Technology in Education 2017 Annual Conference on February 19 and February 20, 2017. If you are interested in discussing a presentation or professional development program for your organization on this topic, please…
A 38-year-old Texas middle school teacher is on administrative leave after being outed as an adult film performer in the early 2000s. Until November 29, Resa Woodward taught science at the Young Woman’s STEAM Academy at Balch Springs Middle School, which is part of the Dallas Independent School District. She reportedly has been a teacher…
North Carolina, I’m looking at you. Ten months after the state made national headlines for charging a 16-year-old high school quarterback and his 15-year-old girlfriend with two felonies each for exchanging nude cell phone photos, state officials have leveled four felony counts against a 16-year-old boy for disseminating obscenity (i.e., photos of his penis). At…
On Thursday, May 26, Good Morning America aired the latest segment in a series that it has been doing on teens and technology. Entitled “What Your Kids Don’t Want You to Know: Teens Exploited Via Technology,” the piece “examines how some teens are coerced or blackmailed into sending explicit pictures or video to a predator.”…
Over the last couple of years, I’ve dived deeply into the topic of teacher misconduct. The cases I’ve studied and summarized have ranged widely, from the merely sad to the reprehensible to the truly horrifying. One thing is abundantly clear: we need to improve teacher candidate education and professional development to better instruct educators about…
The annual conference of the Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI) is being held in Washington, DC this week, and as usual, it is has been an energizing and thought-provoking experience. FOSI Founder and CEO Steven Balkam and his staff do a terrific job of putting together a compelling slate of presentations on some of the…
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…
