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A Questionable Action

Posted 02-23-2012 at 09:53 PM by Mudokon_Master
Updated 02-23-2012 at 10:23 PM by Mudokon_Master

Here we go. Trouble at school again, and unlike most cases, I believe I'm not eligible for punishment! I'm gonna need you guy's help.
Let's go into a bit of backstory shall we?
This year all students in Queensland were issued their own personal school laptops. If we break the rules on our laptops, their administrative privileges may be taken away.

Anyhow, I was sitting in Science next to my mate Ben. He forgot his school password so couldn't access the school proxy (therefore Internet altogether) and couldn't research. I gave him a few tips on how to change the password via command prompt.

Apparently this was disallowed and was shortly followed by a visit to the class by Mr Sterling, the IT Head.
'Where is Ben?' he asked. Our Science teacher prompted him to Ben's seat where his laptop was confiscated to be removed of admin rights.
'Tristan told me how, sir!' Ben said.
Now my laptop is taken away too. Try to negotiate with the man and all you'll get is
'Give it up!'
'It's mine!'
'Now!'
Now I'm lost. How can he do that? I haven't done anything to my computer let alone touch Ben's.
I don't even know, maybe I just need to flame here. But maybe you guys could give me advice too.

EDIT: I've just check on my school's website and it says here:

Consequences for Inappropriate Behaviour:
For touching/logging on to another
person's laptop, playing games during class on laptop, leaving laptop
unattended, inappropriate Internet searching or file possession, copyrighted or
Illegal Software Downloaded/Installed, wilful damage of school laptops
you can get
 Loss of administrator rights on laptop (for Illegal and/or
copyrighted software and for playing games in class) for a rolling
period of six months
 Loss of internet access whilst at school and downgraded to
highest filter for when at home (for inappropriate internet
searching) for a period of four weeks
 Student liable for cost of all repairs of damaged laptops

What I have done does not cover the criteria.

Comments 28

Total Comments 28

Comments

	Have you pointed that out to them?
	Posted 02-23-2012 at 10:17 PM by sheridanm962

	Not your laptop if I understand the situation correctly, so get over it. Edit: I hope that isn't your friend's real name.
	Posted 02-23-2012 at 10:19 PM by Daxter King

	I payed for it and of course it is. EDIT: There, changed it.
	Posted 02-23-2012 at 10:22 PM by Mudokon_Master

	Ah, I thought the school gave you guys them like a book or something. If you bought it, fuck those nignogs all the way to court.
	Posted 02-23-2012 at 10:25 PM by Daxter King

	They took something that you brought.... If they don't say it's theft, the court will :)
	Posted 02-23-2012 at 10:30 PM by sheridanm962

	He will give it back to me after the weekend, just without right click/control panel/freedom/internet access etc.
	Posted 02-23-2012 at 10:31 PM by Mudokon_Master

	Without right-click? The hell? And you didn't even do anything? How much did you have to pay for this laptop?
	Posted 02-23-2012 at 10:52 PM by enchilado

	I payed $150 for the year.
	Posted 02-23-2012 at 10:55 PM by Mudokon_Master

	Their rules are a bit... extreme, especially when you haven't really done anything wrong.
	Posted 02-23-2012 at 11:55 PM by Jordan

	Get your parents to call them up and demand your Admin privileges back.
	Posted 02-23-2012 at 11:56 PM by Nate

	I don't know, Nate. If things go the wrong way, my parents could be persuaded I've done the wrong thing and punish me. I feel so powerless right now.
	Posted 02-24-2012 at 12:15 AM by Mudokon_Master

We have a similar thing in SA. Really old Macbooks are being rolled out to hundreds of school students. We don't own the laptops, but we have to pay $150/year for insurance.

We have been told that we are covered for accidental breakage as long as the Mac is in the cases provided to us. Everyone I know that has broken the computers has had to pay for repairs. Most of those were accidental.

A friend of mine walked into a chair while carrying her Mac, knocking it out of her hand and slightly cracking the screen. She had to pay. Another friend opened their locker and tried desperately to catch the Mac that fell from it. She had to pay.

A guy in my year broke his Mac, told the IT department to piss off when they tried to charge him, went home and ordered the free Macbook repair kit that Apple gladly supplied him. We're not amused with the IT department at my school.

tl;dr Barely relevant post emphasizing the stupidity of schools.

Posted 02-24-2012 at 12:28 AM by Phylum

When they introduced free laptops I was too old to get one, so I'm not quite sure how the system works. Though your login information for the school's network and EQ's proxy has nothing to do with your laptop, you know that shitload of text you have to agree to when you log on to a school computer? You probably violated that.

And if you read that pdf you linked to you should realise that the $150 is to pay for a mouse and technical support; you do not own the laptop.

Anyway, I second Nate, complaining parents have a surprising amount of influence on a school. Also what sort of friend would do that?

Posted 02-24-2012 at 12:43 AM by moxco

@ MocCo., let's just say he's no longer my friend. I know it's technically not my laptop but it doesn't change the fact that I'm now paying for a piece of shit I can barely do anything with.
I suppose I'm just angry about the whole thing, because we were specifically told 'What we do on our laptops is our business as long as it's ethical.'
And this brings us back to the whole password change thing. How the fuck is it unethical?
IMO, they had NO right to take my laptop. I might try Nate's idea.

Posted 02-24-2012 at 12:55 AM by Mudokon_Master

	You could install Linux on it alongside the existing (I presume) Windows installation.
	Posted 02-24-2012 at 01:18 AM by enchilado

	I too think that you haven't done anything wrong and neither you nor your friend should be punished for that... Was that his password? (Did he made it or was generated for him?) PS: $150 a year? How many years? In my country you can buy a nice basic laptop for approx. $300.
	Posted 02-24-2012 at 02:28 AM by Varrok

	A $300 laptop in Australia would be pathetically bad. Unusable, I'd go so far as to say.
	Posted 02-24-2012 at 02:54 AM by enchilado

	Well that certainly sucks, but I'd like to meet any school IT teacher or technician who isn't a tremendous dickhole. As a profession, it's like bouncers: you have to be a fuckface to get the position.
	Posted 02-24-2012 at 03:50 AM by Wil

	: A $300 laptop in Australia would be pathetically bad. Unusable, I'd go so far as to say. (By a "nice basic laptop" I meant one with 2core CPU, 3gb RAM and some kind of AMD/ATI Mobile Radeon HD GPU, OS not included)
	Posted 02-24-2012 at 04:31 AM by Varrok

I've noticed that IT teachers at schools tend to be completely incompetent, with no idea how to operate a computer at all. The teacher in charge of my schoo's website is the kind of person who can actually lose track of the mouse on the screen. The actual IT teacher is not much better.

Well, it seems you didn't break any of those rules. I'd say you're entitled to your laptop back. Besides not doing anything to your own computer, I'm not fully sure you'd be breaking rules by doing it to your own. Perhaps your friend ought to have his back as well. I'm not too sure what you could do. I suppose you could get your parents to try and get it back, or maybe argue this case to whoever is in charge of the laptop thing. I'll be rooting for you.

Posted 02-24-2012 at 07:00 AM by Oddey

	What you have to do is follow him home, then wipe shit on the door knob of his front door. Oh and put a firework through his letter box. Seriously though...just tell your rents.
	Posted 02-24-2012 at 08:01 AM by STM

The main reason behind this is: Imagine you're GOOD with computers, will you really want to be a school teacher? : D

Posted 02-24-2012 at 09:20 AM by Varrok

	: Oh and put a firework through his letter box. He's Australian. Australians don't have letterboxes opening through the front door. : The main reason behind this is: Imagine you're GOOD with computers, will you really want to be a school teacher? : D As someone who is GOOD with computers... that's a bloody good point.
	Posted 02-24-2012 at 03:58 PM by Nate

	Thanks for all the support guys, I'll try to have another talk to him on Monday, if he resorts back to yelling at me and being impossible to negotiate with, I'll talk about it with my mum.
	Posted 02-24-2012 at 04:28 PM by Mudokon_Master

	Won't not telling your parents now make it seem more like you did something wrong and were hiding it from them than if you tell them on Monday?
	Posted 02-24-2012 at 04:38 PM by Phylum

	: : Originally Posted by Scrabtrapman Oh and put a firework through his letter box. Originally Posted by Nate He's Australian. Australians don't have letterboxes opening through the front door. He's Australian. Australians don't have fireworks legally for sale.
	Posted 02-24-2012 at 08:09 PM by moxco

	Drop some gelignite down his chimney.
	Posted 02-24-2012 at 08:37 PM by enchilado

	: He's Australian. Australians don't have fireworks legally for sale. Legally? No. Possible to obtain? Yes!
	Posted 02-24-2012 at 11:08 PM by Nate

Recent Blog Entries by Mudokon_Master

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Failing Maths (05-20-2012)
A Very Eventful Day (03-05-2012)
A Questionable Action (02-23-2012)
A Game (12-30-2011)


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