[ale] [WAY OT] Ethics Question

[Greg]

Well, I guess several points come to mind.

1.	Knowing about a crime (even after the fact) and doing nothing is breaking
the law.  Under the guise of collusion, conspiracy, or "knowledge after the
fact", aiding and abetting, etc. the tech is now involved, whether he/she
wants to be or not.

2.	Child abuse pushes some serious hot buttons in the community and anyone
not reporting it is asking to find themselves in some seriously deep **it.
Look at the Catholic Church's recent experiences.

3.	The network belongs to the public via the school system and student's
have little to no rights to privacy.  None in regards to email, and even
none in regards to their lockers.  Legal grounding is similar to the
military's "health and welfare inspections", compounded by the fact that it
is school grounds/property and such recent events as Columbine, the war on
terrorism, and the political climate would suggest that the teacher &
student is already done for.

4.	While the tech might get fired if the principal tries to get even, the
principal won't send him/her to a prison, and the tech would have several
legal recourses to save their job should the system be that stupid.  If the
tech goes to prison, well, child abusers have a hard time in general
population from what I have heard.

5.	How would the tech & everyone else feel if it was their child ?

I would tell the tech to go to the police.  The FBI is now involved in child
pornography after the previous administration publicly abandoned it for "the
war on drugs" (how many wars are we fighting now ?) but mainly with regards
to "rings" or stuff that crosses state lines.  Mentioning it to the
papers/TV would certainly get a reaction, but I would think twice about
that.

Personally, if the tech does nothing as far as I am concerned, he/she is
guilty too and should be punished.  The reason bad things happen in a
community is because good people do nothing.

Greg Canter



> -----Original Message-----
> From: Pete Hardie [mailto:pete.hardie at sciatl.com]
> Sent: Monday, November 11, 2002 10:42 AM
> To: ale at ale.org
> Subject: Re: [ale] [WAY OT] Ethics Question
>
>
> Jonathan Glass wrote:
> > On another mailing list, I received an article.  The subject of
> the article was
> > asking about the ethical implications of finding incriminating
> email from a
> > teacher to a student on a High School mail server.  Should the
> tech turn the
> > data over the authorities or keep quiet.  Apparently the
> Superintendent and the
> > Principal want the tech to leave it alone.
> >
> > My question to the group:
> > Should the author of the article be responsible for sending
> this information the
> > FBI/local police, whether or not the subject of the article
> decides to act?
> >
> > My opinion:
> > Since this article is talking about child abuse by teachers,
> and since the
> > school officials are covering up, I believe the author has a
> moral obligation to
> > contact the authorities.  I'm so irritated that the author and
> subject have
> > apparently done nothing that I'm thinking about forwarding the
> article on to the
> > local FBI, even though I'm not sure if something like that is in their
> > jurisdiction.
>
> Unless the school has a really unusually strong privacy policy,
> I'm with you.
> Heck, I seem to recall several school newspaper cases where the
> courts declared
> that those papers do not have full 1st Amendment rights, so I guess the
> student's email is not so private.
>
>
>
>
> --
> Pete Hardie                   |   Goalie, DVSG Dart Team
>      posting from, but not     |
> 	speaking for:             |
> Scientific Atlanta, Digital Video Services Group
>
>
>
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