Students object to parent/school watch program

Students were less than happy last week when they discovered that their parents could "spy" on them by logging in to the new program with a password.

By TRANSLATEDMIRIAM BULWAR DAVID-HAY
Students at a Ramat Hasharon high school have gone up in arms over a new computer program that enables their parents to monitor their attendance and behavior records at school, reports www.local.co.il. The school and parents kicked off the program last week, prompting students to threaten to go on strike, until the school principal intervened and persuaded them to return to class. According to the report, students at the Alon high school were less than happy last week when they discovered that their parents could "spy" on them by logging in to the new program with the aid of a password. One student described the move as hutzpa and said it was an invasion of privacy by the school. Students and parents also found that the records were mistaken in numerous cases. But a parents' committee spokesman said that despite the initial problems, the move was "a step up in the dialogue between parents, students and the school" and there was no invasion of privacy involved in parents' knowing whether their children were at school and how they were behaving there. The report said the program was previously tested at another school, and 71 percent of teachers there had expressed satisfaction with it.