Detention for "Foxfire.exe"

Bet that as it may, the teacher told her student to do something, and they refused...sorry, but I think detention is appropriate.

I also think a parent should have spoken to the teacher further to find out what the big deal was.

I can understand getting punished for disobeying, but you have to wonder if a person unfamiliar with Firefox belongs in a position teaching what is apparently a class that relies on the net for work.

I agree, and that's why it would seem natural to me for a parent to question the teacher. But I see the disobeying as being a huge problem in schools, and THAT is something I think kids need to know they can't get away with.

When my daughter was in 1st or 2nd grade, she was told to draw a picture of something, and told the teacher no. She got a 'pink slip', which was like a 'pre-detention' warning, that she had to bring home for me to sign. Needless to say my daughter got quite an earful that night from me, and never brought home another pink slip after that.

Disobedience is one of those things that's a bit of a touchy subject for me. I was held back in 1st grade in one of the weirdest ways. The teacher said for us to spend our time coloring in circular pictures. Balloons, plates, whatever. Sure, it might've been training for taking Scantron tests, but it was one of the worst things they could've done to me at the time. I was one of the few kids in the class who could read without assistance, as I'd been doing it at home for a few years at that point. I was the only kid in my Kindergarten class who did book reports. My first grade teacher kept giving the class things to do that didn't really have much to do with anything other than pattern recognition, counting to ten, and recognizing the colors of the rainbow. I was already in a gifted program that took me to a different campus for some classes. What I wanted (and arguably, what I required) was stimulation and actual work. I wanted things to read. I wanted actual mathwork. They were showing me things I learned before Kindergarten, and I neither had the attention span to handle it nor the desire to care. I just knew I was in a place where I could learn, and that's what I wanted to do. If a young child wants to learn, do not prevent it just because he's different from the rest of the class.

They moved me to T-1. That's "transitional 1st grade" for kids who aren't mature enough for actual 1st grade. The official ruling was that I was too lazy to do 1st grade schoolwork. So their solution was a class where half the day was spent doing slightly less of the counting 1-10, looking at colors, and filling in bubbles. The extra time was used to play Red Rover outside or with a parachute and wiffle balls indoors. Hardly much of anything. At least the teacher was cute.

The next year, we moved to CA and I went to 1st grade all over again. My teacher felt I was a little unpolished (what do you expect when they make you play more than they let you study?), but was impressed with me enough to send me to 3rd grade classes for part of the day. The next year I was in yet another school, but that was only because we were moving again (military) and I was only sent there so I wouldn't recognize kids from the past year (less chance of attachment before driving to NY).

I got to NY, and they decided to give me an IQ test. I didn't realize what they were doing because they didn't warn me. They just put me in a room with a guy asking dumb questions. Had I known what they were doing, I would've tried harder. As it was, he bored me and I just threw answers at him because I figured it'd make him shut up. Turns out they said I belonged in the 5th grade. My parents only allowed them to bump me up to 3rd because of the age difference, so I was back where I would've been had the Fort Polk, LA school system not figured I was just lazy.

The biggest downside to all that is that I got used to being stuck with busywork that did nothing for me. They claimed I was lazy when I wanted to work harder, and in effect gave me a taste of slacking off. Focusing on learning got harder and harder for me after that. My parents learned the hard way that they should've taken my side back in Fort Polk. To this day, I still think my teacher was the one being lazy.

...but I'm not bitter.

OK, maybe just a tad.

was it firefox.exe or firefox.exe ?

And it's instances like this that make me LONG to have children so I could go to the school and scream in the moronic teacher's face what an ass they were being and that no way in hell was my child going to detention. My Mom used to be up at the school over the shit they tried so often we would walk down the hall (Mom and I) and see the Vice Principal turn around and go into her office and lock the door to avoid her. *hahahahaha*

I'm sorry but obviously either the teacher has no brains and needs a serious ass kicking, or that parent has NO balls and does not care enough about their child to fight for them if they don't question this. I was raised not to respect someone just because of the position they held be it a teacher a doctor etc.. We're all human beings and capable of mistakes. God knows the moronic imbicile we have in the White House is proof of this, but I digress.

What kind of teacher.. what kind of ANYONE with a sliver of awareness of the internet has not heard of firefox?? Come on now, seriously.

Oh and that "any student refusing to attend detention" bullshit? Give me a break, I would LOVE to be this kid's parent so I could bend the teacher and the idiot who approved this detention over their desks and ream them a new one.

Damn I need a kid.

Kids need to learn that there are rules in life, and even if they don't always make sense, in certain circumstances you still need to follow them, until you can change them.

My daughter started kindergarten at the age of four, when everyone else was five, or even six years old. She could read at that point, better than over half the class. When she moved on into first and second grade, etc., her grades were always As and Bs.

In fourth grade, still getting almost straight As, her teacher (at a rural school) advised me to have her repeat that grade. Why? Because he found her somewhat antsy, and immature when compared to the other kids, who were one and two years older than she was. I politely told him I would not have her repeat the fourth grade when the problems he was describing were HIS problems, and not hers. She was having no trouble doing any of the work, and if he had issues with her otherwise, it would be to his benefit to figure out how to deal with it. She wasn't going to suffer because he didn't want to take a little extra time to find ways to settle her down with more interesting work, etc.

As it turned out, we moved before she went into the fifth grade, and she started attending a school that was much larger, and located in a more urban location. Not one teacher ever had issues with her immaturity from then on, mainly because by then she was just as mature as the boys, and catching up to the girls nicely. Not to mention, a lot of the kids were closer to her in age then too.

So my opinion on agreeing that a disobedient child should be punished isn't because I roll over on all issues, obviously. Plus, I saw, and still see, too many kids who's parents just don't see the hellions their kids are, and are the first to jump on anyone who says one critical word about them. Kids are people, and as such need to know very early on that they can't always do what they want, when they want, just because they want to. If what they want is reasonable, cool...I've no issue with a parent pursuing that for them...but come on...kids can be damn unreasonable over a lot of things, and its then they need to be pulled aside and clued in.

Ya know I can understand misunderstanding on the browser part. It happens. But every school has their own rules. it is after all the Schools computer. If they wanted FF on there they would have it as an option. I know at my sons school you are not allowed to run any .exe files on the schools computers. So, if that is the case with this kids school they already disobeyed rule #1, then the teacher asked / or told them to close it. They should have done as told instead of arguing. After class the student cold have confrounted the teacher about asking permission to use the browser or brining up to whoever is in charge of the computer lab and maybe they could add them to the computers at school.
I use FF all the time so I personaly wouldnt have had an issue but rules are rules and if you want to change them then you have to go about it the proper way. /shrug
Detention is a slap on the wrist for breaking a rule specially after asking to stop more then once. If you do something to my computer i told you not to you can bet to hell you wont fucking touch it again .. just food for thought

I agree with Den and Adiene. At my kid's school, parents and students sign an agreement that states they won't visit any website that is not authorized in class, won't run any programs, etc. And I don't think they're being particularly arbitrary about it - it would be so easy for a high school computer lab to get completely out of control without strict regulations. My kid is pretty computer savvy, so we took the time to explain to her in no uncertain terms that these were serious rules for some serious reasons - the risk of viruses and seeing inappropriate material being just a couple of them. Even people who know what they're doing have to follow the rules - being gifted isn't an excuse any more than having a disability excuses bad behavior.

Also, good catch, Vex :D.

I have to agree with Adiene that despite my own preference for Firefox you have to follow the lab rules. That's what the detention was more than likely about. In College we had one kid who disobeyed the teacher about bringing disks from home and he infected the entire schools network with a virus. (It would have been one lab if he hadn't tried 7 different computers with this stupid disfunctional disk.)

Now if this was a case of the class discussing browsers and the kid got into an argument over Firefox being the better browser then I'd be all up in the teachers face. I actually did go after a teacher for failing my niece on a world religion test because my niece said "God spoke to Moses through the burning bush." and the teacher said no God spoke to Moses through a dream. Needless to say one face to face conference with bible in hand and scripture highlighted got my niece the proper grade.

well. if it was indeed 'foxfire.exe' - there's no telling what he was running. I don't know if they had some monitoring system in place or if the teacher phsyically saw the browser in action on the computer, surely doesn't sound like it. If they do just monitor open programs list ( task manager ) then it sounds like the teacher was just too fucking stupid and lazy to get up and walk to the kid's station to see if it indeed is an actual browser, and he is doing his work.

It also doesn't say what rule he actually violated. Installing software on a school computer, or just not being a stupid conformist kid who jumps when the teacher says jump.

imo - its a stupid reason to give a detention, and i would have made one hell of a ruckus.

Where the hell did this come from anyways? i find nothing when i search.

As far as I've been able to tell from every site I've seen where they're discussing this, the teacher called it "Foxfire.exe" when he was using Firefox.

what sites?

Talking back is unacceptable - I would have grounded Catherine, too. There are stupid teachers out there, don't get me wrong - Jello had a problem with a sub being incredibly rude to her youngest the other week - I mean to the point of me asking just how old this substitute was...16? I also try to not make snap judgements on either end until I've heard from both sides. Upon receiving that letter, I would have sat Catherine down and asked her what happened. If she told me that she argued with the teacher over a browser program, I'd tell her to pack her own lunch for detention. I absolutely cannot stand disrespectful teenagers and I'd have no problem with this student going to detention.

That's because your a mean grinch, Roz.

Several webcomic forums (how I initially learned about it), digg.com, and a few miscellaneous tech news and personal blog sites.

It was a hoax.

http://www.bigspring.k12.pa.us/news.php?action=view_article&article_id=2130

Thank God.

I wouldn't put it past some of the schools here ... Tony got 2 day suspension for hugging a girl on the bus .... /rolleyes
He couldnt understand why he was introuble for hugging since he was raised were it is ok to hug and a warm welcomed display of effection. poor kid :( He wasnt like groping her or anything just a friendly hug cuz she was leaving ... but whatever we went to the movies , ate pizza and drank loads of cola :P