Third graders not to blame for sharing porn on school computers
Mar 11, 2015, 1:02 PM | Updated: Oct 14, 2024, 9:36 am
770 KTTH host David Boze doesn't think it's an 8-year-old's fault that she saw and shared sexual images found on a school's computer. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski)
(AP Photo/Ed Andrieski)
Taken from The David Boze Show on 770 KTTH.
A school district in Lake Stevens has suspended two third-graders after one found sexually explicit images on a district computer and shared them with classmates.
Austin Maxwell, the stepfather of one of the students suspended who allegedly typed in the search term that brought up the controversial result, told KING 5 he was furious, but doesn’t blame his child.
“I just can’t even understand why they would have access to these types of things on a school laptop, at school, in a classroom.”
School administration said they are investigating what happened with software that is supposed to filter such explicit images. District officials sent an email home to parents saying all student computer use is suspended until they figure out what happened.
But if these kind of slip-ups are happening, as a parent, Maxwell wondered: “Is it a safe place for her [his daughter] to go back to?”
I think that is the valid question. It’s horrifying for a kid in the third grade to witness pornographic images. You’re robbing the child of innocence. They’re not going to understand what they’re seeing and it can lead to obvious problems.
But I certainly don’t see how you blame an 8-year-old for seeing this. Does it make any sense to then suspend the student when the failure in terms of protection is really in the software?
It would be one thing if the kid had other behavioral problems that were evident from other things going on. But in this case it seems like all involved recognize that this little girl was not the instigator and was not exhibiting some kind of deviant behaviors at the school.
What good are you doing in booting her out? Basically it ends up punishing her for being a victim at the school.
The child doesn’t understand what they’re seeing. They don’t understand what they’re sharing. They just know that it’s gross, or whatever. It seems to me you’ve got do deal with the situation, you can’t just be focusing on trying to suspend the student like a kid who brings in a Pop-Tart gun.
Taken from The David Boze Show on 770 KTTH.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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