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…
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…
As I discussed in Cybertraps for the Young, virtually every new technology has been adapted by students to cheat on exams. It has led to a digital cat-and-mouse game between schools and their pupils, and by and large, the students seem to be winning. Now Internet security firm iSheriff is warning that Apple’s latest consumer…
An Oklahoma father’s lawsuit alleges that the Hollis Independent School District in Holland, Oklahoma violated his son’s rights by not preventing sexual activity between him and his teacher, Jennifer Caswell. Some of you may have seen Caswell’s self-serving interview with Dr. Phil McGraw on May 19. The Complaint contains a number of powerful allegations regarding…
On May 6, Georgia Governor Nathan Deal signed into law a bill entitled “The End to Cyberbullying Act,” which among other things broadened the definition of bullying in Georgia to specifically include “cyberbullying.” At its meeting on May 28, for instance, the Cobb County Board of Education adopted a couple of amendments to their existing…
A new case arising out of White Oak, TX helps to illustrate not only the slippery slope of teacher-student cell phone communications, but the enormous challenges law enforcement officials face in investigating charges of digital misconduct. At the beginning of May, the news broke that an educator in the White Oaks Independent School District had…
What did the staff and administrators in the Jefferson County Public Schools know, and when did they know it? That’s the essence of a lawsuit filed by the father of a 13-year-old boy who was assaulted by a 26-year-old middle school teacher named Jessica Boyer over a 3-month period, from February to April 2013. The…
Scott Schermerhorn, 31, a physical education teacher and boys’ golf coach at Clarksville High School in Indiana was arrested and suspended on April 16, when police accused him of soliciting nude photos from underage students at the school. In February, a 15 or 16-year-old girl (accounts differ) told a trusted adult friend that she had…
A 37-year-old Ontario teacher of special needs students at the Ashley Oakes public school is facing 21 charges of voyeurism after a hidden camera was discovered in a backpack in a staff changing room. Charges were levied against Jamie Gardiner after London, Ontario police examined the discovered video equipment and found videos of two female…
2015-03-26 Cybertraps for Educators: The Rising Cost of Digital Misconduct from Frederick Lane Presented during a day-long event at the Southern California Schools Risk Management Joint Powers Authority on March 26, 2015. If you are interested in discussing a presentation or professional development program for your organization on this topic, please contact me for information…
