By Tracy Jan, Globe Staff
Boston Public School officials, who recently banned cellphone use
during the school day, are angering students with a new prohibition:
no checking or sending e-mail from Yahoo, Hotmail, or other personal
Web-based accounts from school.
With little warning, the school system this spring started banning
access to personal e-mail accounts in all schools because some
students recently used school computers to e-mail threats, hit lists,
and pornography to other students and teachers, school officials say.
There were four incidents during the past four months, but school
officials would not provide further details.
Boston's move follows the lead of an increasing number of school
systems around the country, including Worcester, that have been
cracking down on the use of Web-based e-mail services at school.
Incidents of students using e-mail in school to bully one another have
led to many of the bans, partly because school officials worry about
being held liable if something happens.
Boston school officials estimate that only a third of the system's
students have Internet access at home, and Boston students say the new
policy eliminates an essential form of communication for them.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/05/28/schools_prohibit_personal_e_mail_sites/
Monty Solomon (