Monday, December 17th 2007

High School Student Gets Detention for Using Firefox

Apparently, the Firefox crowd needs to raise awareness of what exactly Firefox does. A high school student was doing his assignments using the internet browser, and got this note home from the teacher...
To the Parent(s)/Guardian(s) of [Redacted], Grade 11

This is to inform you [Redacted] has been assigned a(n) Detention.

Today in class [redacted] had a program launched called Foxfire.exe [sic]. I had told [redacted] to close the program and to resume work but he told me that it was just a different browser and that he was doing his work. I had given him two warnings but he insisted that it was just a 'better' browser and that he wasn't doing anything wrong. I had then issued his detention
The teacher who issued this letter is proof that Firefox simply needs to step up their advertising campaign. The teacher that issued this detention had no idea how to even spell the program name, let alone what it did. Granted, the teacher probably gave this detention out of safety protocol. After all, if you saw a foreign program running on a lot of expensive computers you didn't own, wouldn't you want it out of your systems?
Source: The Inquirer
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74 Comments on High School Student Gets Detention for Using Firefox

#26
PVTCaboose1337
Graphical Hacker
cdawall:roll: thats amazing o well this has still spawned a pretty funny thread



o i thought u did something a little more insane!
I tried the netuser approach, it failed, so I came up with a better way which makes windoze trick the computer into giving you admin.
Posted on Reply
#27
Basard
How bout this for a title? "Kid gets detention for disobeying/disrespecting his teacher." Oh, the POOOOR kid, he shoulda got the crap beaten outta him with a yardstick.
Posted on Reply
#28
cdawall
where the hell are my stars
BasardHow bout this for a title? "Kid gets detention for disobeying/disrespecting his teacher." Oh, the POOOOR kid, he shoulda got the crap beaten outta him with a yardstick.
bad idea!!!! those days are gone we shouldnt start them back up i would have welts after day one!!!
Posted on Reply
#29
Basard
"one laptop per child" more like "one more way to screw off in school" LOL... ^^ you'll think twice before opening ff, if you get the crap beaten outa you with a yardstick....:laugh:
Posted on Reply
#30
1c3d0g
lemonadesodaTeachers should not be allowed to use resources they dont know how to use. Whether it's a PC, chemistry equipment, electrical equipment, or firearms. The school should fire the teacher, or command the teacher to adopt a lesson method he/she is actually competant in.

You can quote me on that.
Well f*cking said! :toast:
Posted on Reply
#31
cdawall
where the hell are my stars
Basard"one laptop per child" more like "one more way to screw off in school" LOL... ^^ you'll think twice before opening ff, if you get the crap beaten outa you with a yardstick....
that makes me think my school gave out MSI laptops to anyone in chem 2 AP

guess what i did for them the 1st week they got them :D....mind you these are locked down to the point were they couldnt run anything not on the windows boot up screen ctrl+alt+dlt and the start menu were blocked ;)

they all got a nice custom linux distro for there usb drives :roll: it ran beautifully god bless linux :D
Posted on Reply
#32
btarunr
Editor & Senior Moderator
IGNORANCE.

What else can I say?

I guess the off-beat name "FireFox" is to blame. The admin at my high-school first thought FF was a game (off-beat name + icon). We had to later take a class on the Netscape story.
Posted on Reply
#33
theonetruewill
Wait a minute- this could be a perfectly valid argument by the teacher. When he orders the teenager to get back to doing the work, then this does not mean that the work requires the internet. I take this a different way; I reckon the stupid child was mucking around on games and decided to use this firefox argument to baffle the teacher and get out of trouble.
Posted on Reply
#34
btarunr
Editor & Senior Moderator
True, but in the shoes of a kid, you've to think in that angle, but usually school kids want to always try new things you know? I got kicked for trying to OC a system by tightening its memory timings....POST fail. So did I in that day's session.

Had the teacher known what Firefox was, I bet all this wouldn't have happened. What if he just used plain old IE? Would he have been punished? The letter shows the kid being kicked for using an off-beat application more so than using the internet.
Posted on Reply
#35
btarunr
Editor & Senior Moderator
Okay Wazzle did the job...it was phoney:o:o:o
Posted on Reply
#36
theonetruewill
btarunrTrue, but in the shoes of a kid, you've to think in that angle, but usually school kids want to always try new things you know? I got kicked for trying to OC a system by tightening its memory timings....POST fail. So did I in that day's session.

Had the teacher known what Firefox was, I bet all this wouldn't have happened. What if he just used plain old IE? Would he have been punished? The letter shows the kid being kicked for using an off-beat application more so than using the internet.
But think of the logic here. Firefox does not look so massively different from IE that the teacher would not have understood that he was browsing the internet. I suspect this has more to do with the student being a smartarse, and he wasn't supposed to be on the internet at all.
Posted on Reply
#37
PVTCaboose1337
Graphical Hacker
I OC'd a school computer once... Basically it still runs today at the CPU speed of 1336.6 mhz.
Posted on Reply
#38
GLeN
mrw1986Meh, I got suspended for sending a message to every single pc in my towns school system (about 500-600 PCs) using NetSend...lawl the principal walked into the classroom because they traced the pc it was from right to me. All the message said was "Hello"

Edit: I wish I was in high school again...
I remeber in first year I was on the pc and this box came up, it said "U R GAY!" I was like wtf :eek: turned around and everyone had the same message then the admin came out shouting telling this senior to get out. The other time one of my mates used someelses account who was our mate too and we sent an mas email to the school saying hello me daryl :laugh: oh and someone near got suspend for sending everyone in the school (1000) an email giving pie to a million decimal points :rockout:

Good times :pimp:

Our systems are completely blocked you guys would have a hard time doing anything.
exe from thumb drives are locked
start up safe mode hack is locked
bios passworded
etc
proxied out to the max, although you can get results by spreading the letters apart :roll: P R O X Y
Pretty much bulletproof system
Posted on Reply
#39
theonetruewill
I'm fine with someone getting in some serious trouble for overclocking school systems too. It's not their computer- so it's vandalism- as overclocking does reduce the parts life expectancy.

Sorry PVTCaboose1337 :p
Posted on Reply
#40
newtekie1
Semi-Retired Folder
Kid got what he deserved. He ignored the warning twice, he is lucky a detention is all he got.

I don't care if you do think it is 'better', don't use it on computers that aren't yours, and don't continue to use it on computers that aren't yours after you have been told not to. It isn't God's gift to browsers, you don't need it to browse the internet.
Posted on Reply
#41
cdawall
where the hell are my stars
GLeNI remeber in first year I was on the pc and this box came up, it said "U R GAY!" I was like wtf :eek: turned around and everyone had the same message then the admin came out shouting telling this senior to get out. The other time one of my mates used someelses account who was our mate too and we sent an mas email to the school saying hello me daryl :laugh: oh and someone near got suspend for sending everyone in the school (1000) an email giving pie to a million decimal points :rockout:

Good times :pimp:

Our systems are completely blocked you guys would have a hard time doing anything.
exe from thumb drives are locked
start up safe mode hack is locked
bios passworded
etc
proxied out to the max, although you can get results by spreading the letters apart :roll: P R O X Y
Pretty much bulletproof system
i doubt that the boot menu was blocked though which means you could boot from USB or CD ;)
Posted on Reply
#42
Dangle
I would have expelled him for not using a better browser - Avant.
Posted on Reply
#43
pt
not a suicide-bomber
DangleI would have expelled him for not using a better browser - Avant.
that's so old
and it was just ie with tabs back in the old days, dk about today
Posted on Reply
#44
Basard
Everybody is missing the whole point. It doesnt matter if it was Firefox, foxfire, or GOD's own personal web browser. The kid was supposed to be WORKING, not cruising the net... Even if he was supposed to be using the net, he broke the rules and installed firefox, then ignored the teacher when he was told to do something. How anybody can defend this kid in the least bit is beyond me. "Firefox is better" so who cares? "The teacher is dumb, she said 'foxfire'," yeah, who really gives a crap if she has half a brain, he was being disobedient. If he was in "my classroom" on "my computers" I would have sat his ass in the corner with a pen and paper, and a friggan dunce cap for the rest of the day, if not week.

How this story made it past the classroom and onto the internet is beyond me, but at least it gives me something to complain about. I'd rather my tax dollars not be wasted fixing computers that get ruined by kids like this. Not that he ruined THAT particular computer, but I'm sure this little hellion caused his fair share of damage to school property--and he probably had a lousy excuse for that too.
Posted on Reply
#45
theonetruewill
BasardEverybody is missing the whole point. It doesnt matter if it was Firefox, foxfire, or GOD's own personal web browser. The kid was supposed to be WORKING, not cruising the net... Even if he was supposed to be using the net, he broke the rules and installed firefox, then ignored the teacher when he was told to do something. How anybody can defend this kid in the least bit is beyond me. "Firefox is better" so who cares? "The teacher is dumb, she said 'foxfire'," yeah, who really gives a crap if she has half a brain, he was being disobedient. If he was in "my classroom" on "my computers" I would have sat his ass in the corner with a pen and paper, and a friggan dunce cap for the rest of the day, if not week.

How this story made it past the classroom and onto the internet is beyond me, but at least it gives me something to complain about. I'd rather my tax dollars not be wasted fixing computers that get ruined by kids like this. Not that he ruined THAT particular computer, but I'm sure this little hellion caused his fair share of damage to school property--and he probably had a lousy excuse for that too.
Agreed!:toast:
Posted on Reply
#47
newtekie1
Semi-Retired Folder
DangleI would have expelled him for not using a better browser - Avant.
Good to see a fellow Avant user.:toast:
ptthat's so old
and it was just ie with tabs back in the old days, dk about today
Its a good browser, still uses IE rendering engine, but it was never 'just ie with tab'. Saying that is like saying Firefox is just Mozilla or Netscape is just Firefox.
Posted on Reply
#49
OnBoard
PVTCaboose1337I OC'd a school computer once... Basically it still runs today at the CPU speed of 1336.6 mhz.
Nice :) Except XP (don't remember what NT did) at least rounds to 2 decimals, cuts of l33t :/
Posted on Reply
#50
Unregistered
I got suspended for having a beard,i went to school when i was nearly 16 with a beard,and they told me to go home and shave it off,i said no.I told the teacher it was'nt in the rules,oh and i turned up on a honda cx500 motorbike,which i guess did'nt help.

By the time i was 16 i had a full beard.
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