This is a pet peeve of mine – school administrators or computer site administrators who ban students from the board network because of what students are doing on the network. This could be anything from using MSN to hacking a computer. These administrators have the power to disable student accounts as they see fit. It would be up to the student and/or parents to fight this ban.

Couple of things – if a student throws a pen, do we ban the student from using a pen at school? No, we take action to educate the student about why they shouldn’t be throwing pens. If there is a consistent problem then students are dealt with in another manner, but we do not take away their writing tool.

By banning students from the network we are devaluing the importance of computer access for our students in an increasingly more technological world. Those who ban are usually the ones who are the purveyors of technology, but they are diminishing the value of their key instruments.

Ban students from the board network – no! Ban educators from banning students – yes! Let’s Educate Them.