SCHOOL DISTRICT PASSES BLOG RULES CHANGES

In a move that has drawn national attention to this Lake County
school district, the Community High School District 128 board
unanimously passed rules changes Monday night that will hold students
accountable for what they post on blogs and social-networking Web sites.

For Libertyville and Vernon Hills High Schools, the changes will mean
that all students participating in extracurricular activities,
including athletic teams, fine arts groups and school clubs, will
have to sign a pledge agreeing that evidence of "illegal or
inappropriate" behavior posted on the Internet could be grounds for
disciplinary action.

Officials of District 128, which includes the two schools, said about
80 percent of the district's 3,200 students participate in one or
more extracurricular activities.

Associate Supt. Prentiss Lea said the changes are part of an effort
to get the district community more knowledgeable about the growing
Internet blog phenomenon and more aware of the pitfalls of such sites
as MySpace.com.

"By adding the blog sites [to the student codes of conduct], we
wanted to raise discussions on the issue," he said. "We have taken
the first steps to starting that conversation."

Word of the changes had stirred discussion in the district among
parents and students.

Some contend that the new codes of conduct will reinforce that
students are accountable for the information they post online. But
others, including one mother who spoke at the meeting, argue that
monitoring students' online postings is an invasion of privacy.

Lake Bluff resident Mary Greenberg, the only person to speak during
the public comment period, told officials that the district is
overstepping its bounds.

As parents, "we have to watch what they're doing," said Greenberg,
who has a son at Libertyville High. "I don't think they need to
police what students are doing online. That's my job."

District officials will not regularly surf students' sites for rules
violations, officials said. But they will monitor them if they get
some indication--specifically, a tip from another student, a parent
or a community member--pointing them in that direction.

School administrators would treat incriminating information found on
the Web the same as they would any other evidence of wrongdoing, as
pieces of a larger investigation into the offending behavior.

The new pledge will be used in all activities for the next school
year, including those that start over the coming summer break, Lea said.

In the pledge, which both students and their parents must sign, the
students agree that they won't use alcohol, tobacco or drugs or
"exhibit gross misconduct or behavior/citizenship that is considered
detrimental to his/her team or school."

The code of conduct states that "maintaining or being identified on a
blog site which depicts illegal or inappropriate behavior will be
considered a violation of this code."

A committee of about 30 parents, teachers and administrators devised
the changes this year in response to the growing popularity of such
sites as MySpace and news reports of adults preying on teens via the Internet.

Sites like MySpace, Xanga.com and friendster.com allow users to
create a Web site where they can post pictures and information about
themselves and communicate with other users.

Lea rebuffed criticism that officials are going beyond their authority.

"The concept that searching a blog site is an invasion of privacy is
almost an oxymoron," he said. "It is called the World Wide Web."