KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A metro school district is making big changes in cybersecurity. It comes after a parent says things got so bad for her daughter, she was forced to pull her child out of school and move her out of state.
41 Action News sat down with a concerned mother who wished to remain anonymous. Her daughter once attended the Park Hill School District.
She said the problems began shortly after her daughter was issued a laptop by the district. She said her daughter then set up a Facebook account with her school email address, on her school laptop.
“This Facebook account was used by her boyfriend to help groom her for an inappropriate, sexual relationship," said the mother. "Over a 6-week period, there’s 650 printable pages of him talking to her and trying to teach her about bondage relationships.”
The mother said her daughter’s personality changed abruptly and feels the inappropriate relationship with her boyfriend, who was also a student, would’ve been caught sooner if district leaders put more safeguards on those laptops.
“She got physically violent with me one time. If they’re searching for guns, violence, porn, then someone should be alerted to this. Whether it’s inside the school or not.”
Park Hill School District leaders say there are hundreds of thousands of websites blocked automatically on school-issued devices. Assistant Superintendent for Business and Technology Dr. Paul Kelly said new URLs are added daily to the blocked list.
District leaders admit this is an ongoing battle. They say software is loaded onto each device, blocking explicit and abusive sites and language, whether it’s on or off campus. But leaders say some sites and apps like Facebook Messenger can sometimes fall through the cracks.
“The policy and regulations about what our expectations are, and the parent is all given at the very beginning before they’re taken home,” Kelly said.
On Feb. 16, district leaders opted to block Facebook altogether from the laptops, and leaders said they’re constantly reviewing policies. Parents and students in the Park Hill District must review and sign off on an “Acceptable Use Policy” form before they’re issued laptops. The form bans explicit language or images on school devices.
