Saturday, February 2nd 2008
High School Student May Not Graduate Because he Built a Proxy Server
While some schools do everything they can to facilitate children learning about computers, others draw a fine line between "edutainment" and "security risk". A high school student in Fairfax County, Virginia must visit one of the latter categories. He was pulled out of his Philosophy exam to be told that he may not graduate; he built a proxy server in his (parents') home. Dubbed "Afnani's Moo Proxy", it was used by himself and a couple technologically-adept students to bypass school firewalls. The administrator of the school networks would not have any of it. He tried to declare the server illegal, despite nothing in the usage contract saying using any proxy, let alone your own personal one, was illegal. When the student pointed out the flaw in the contract, the administrator simply changed his accusations to "repeat network abuse", which can keep the boy from walking at graduation.
The high school student has decided to comply, and has shut down all proxy servers he owns. His personal school computer account has been disabled, but he is (at this point) allowed to graduate.
Source:
The Inquirer
The high school student has decided to comply, and has shut down all proxy servers he owns. His personal school computer account has been disabled, but he is (at this point) allowed to graduate.
20 Comments on High School Student May Not Graduate Because he Built a Proxy Server
I could be wrong though!
thank god i dont go to fairfax county schools anymore... even if they were preety damn sweet schools..
As far as I was aware, a school can NOT dictate what you do in your personal time, or with your personal effects, even on school grounds it is technically illegal for them to confiscate stuff (I had this argument with my headmaster once and won, so I'm assuming I'm right here).
So yes, they can tell him NOT to use the proxy, but actually shut it down?
Oh for the good old days where you could run rings around teachers...
hrwp.zapto.org
The school got wind of it, and they just blocked it.
when will girls learn? :shadedshu
Seriously, though - they can't dictate what the student does with his personal computer on his personal time, that's why they changed their argument to "repeat network abuse" because he's using the proxy to bypass the schools installed protection mechanisms - although, that terminology is fairly vague and makes it sound worse than it really is.
Still a School should not be able to tell a student that tere not allowed to have a proxy set up in there OWN home, I remeber the incedent with firefox, I use it on my college PC's now, and they dont say anything because the actual admins use it too, they wanted it on all PC's but the head tacher thinks IE is alot better (¬_¬)
Daniel
I can at least speak for our region in VA, if a teacher or administrator demanded you to hand over your electronics, you had to - refusal would be levied with suspension. This was at least at the HS level, though.
Colleges are much more lax - if you're disturbing class, they'll ask to to leave. If you have to take a phone call, most instructors don't mind that you step out for a minute, though.
People in an instructional position generally HATE it when their pupil surpasses them (unless they're old, like Mr. Miagi haha). Suck it up & admit, you got PWN3D.
The big kicker too is if you're an exceptional student (top 5-10% of your class), they are even more stumped, and you have even more of a case. So do well in your classes kiddies! haha
Heres the original article from the guy himself:
robertafnani.com/2008/01/31/fcps-its-illegal-to-make-websites/
( the reason i hacked the msn account becus some one asked me to hack, crack her password so i did after fiew days he betrayed me :S )
Btw, jocksteel, your avatar is somewhat disturbing!:laugh: