Student receives detention for using Firefox

A letter describing how a high school student received detention for using the Firefox browser -- apparently because his teacher didn't understand that Firefox is simply a different kind of browser -- has been doing the rounds:



The letter actually says "Foxfire" not "Firefox" -- which makes it sound like the teacher was totally clueless.

I believed the letter when I saw it. In fact, I didn't notice that anyone was skeptical of it (though apparently a few people were). But it turns out to be a hoax. The Big Spring School District has posted a notice online
Recently, a file was uploaded to the Internet purporting to be a copy of a letter from Big Spring High School to a student regarding a two hour detention. The uploaded letter was an altered version of a detention letter sent to a student. Unfortunately, privacy concerns prevent the School District from giving a full explanation of the nature and source of the letter’s alteration at this time. The Big Spring School District does have confirmation that the discipline letter was altered.

The reports, blogs and other sources on the Internet indicating that a Big Spring student was assigned detention for using the Firefox internet browser instead of Internet Explorer are untrue and were based on the fake letter. Detention is assigned in our schools after appropriate warnings are given. If students continue to engage in non-academic activities or fail to follow a teacher’s directive during class time, discipline can and will be assigned.

Sincerely yours,

John C. Scudder

High School Principal

Atomic1fire already posted this in the forum, but I thought it deserved to be on the main page.

Technology

Posted on Mon Dec 17, 2007


Comments

I know the student that received this detention, and he indeed received detention for using the "Foxfire" (lol,) browser. However the slip was altered in a few ways in order for it to make sence, etc. Like the browser being better part, etc.
Posted by Thetruth0321  on  Tue Dec 18, 2007  at  07:58 AM
Not that off. Back when I was in college, the college made it mandatory that the only browser be used is IE (yes, the dangerous browser that comes with every Windows machine), which had been locked down with the stupid RSACi thing that half of the time blocks legitimate sites but let supposedly banned sites through (trust me. A family-friendly forum? won't let me through. Porn forums and online games? Goes through fine). I wised up and started burned a copy of Firefox onto CD-RW and started using it at college. When the administrators found out, guess what? They disabled the CD-ROM drive and USB ports of all the machines in the college, and posted messages all over campus stating that only IE is allowed.

And the same college insisted that JAVA and .NET is the future and C++ and C is dead, but that's a story for another time.
Posted by RAMChYLD  on  Fri Dec 28, 2007  at  03:01 AM
Doesn't John C. Scudder appear in 'The 39 Steps' by John Buchan?
Posted by Wonkey Monkey  on  Tue Jan 01, 2008  at  02:36 PM
It's ok, in 5 years people will be charged for using Linux or Yahoo
Posted by Jusua  on  Wed Feb 06, 2008  at  08:30 AM
I thought there was a seperation of Church and school in the USA?

Why then is someone being persecuted by the Church of Saint Bill for using a heretical system?
Posted by DFStuckey  on  Fri Feb 15, 2008  at  02:18 AM
Um, they aren't. It's a hoax.
Posted by Charybdis  on  Fri Feb 15, 2008  at  10:40 AM
Ummm, I know.

Ummm, I also know people who describe using anything but Microsoft product as blasphemy which was who the joke was aimed at.
Posted by DFStuckey  on  Fri Feb 15, 2008  at  11:20 AM
Well, the kid was right at least.
Posted by Craig  on  Sun Sep 07, 2008  at  09:04 AM
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