[ale] [WAY OT] Ethics Question

Pete Hardie pete.hardie at sciatl.com
Mon Nov 11 10:41:38 EST 2002


Jonathan Glass wrote:
> On another mailing list, I received an article.  The subject of the article was
> asking about the ethical implications of finding incriminating email from a
> teacher to a student on a High School mail server.  Should the tech turn the
> data over the authorities or keep quiet.  Apparently the Superintendent and the
> Principal want the tech to leave it alone.
> 
> My question to the group:
> Should the author of the article be responsible for sending this information the
> FBI/local police, whether or not the subject of the article decides to act?  
> 
> My opinion: 
> Since this article is talking about child abuse by teachers, and since the
> school officials are covering up, I believe the author has a moral obligation to
> contact the authorities.  I'm so irritated that the author and subject have
> apparently done nothing that I'm thinking about forwarding the article on to the
> local FBI, even though I'm not sure if something like that is in their
> jurisdiction.  

Unless the school has a really unusually strong privacy policy, I'm with you. 
Heck, I seem to recall several school newspaper cases where the courts declared 
that those papers do not have full 1st Amendment rights, so I guess the 
student's email is not so private.




-- 
Pete Hardie                   |   Goalie, DVSG Dart Team
     posting from, but not     |
	speaking for:             |
Scientific Atlanta, Digital Video Services Group



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