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Police to teachers, ‘Protect your students’

BY STEPHEN RICKERL, THE SOUTHERN

CARBONDALE- Student teachers who will soon become full-time educators received an unflinching lesson on the dangers of unsupervised Internet use and its affect on young students.

The seminar by Illinois State Police was part of the Southern Illinois University Carbondale College of Education and Human Services' Week of Transition, which helps to further prepare graduates to enter the classroom as full-time professionals.

Illinois State Police District 22 Safety Education Officer Bridget Rice spoke about several aspects of Internet use, which can harm students. Examples include cyber bullying, identity theft, inappropriate material and sexual harassment. Rice said unmonitored Internet use is a real danger to school children from grade school to high school.

"Our kids are being targeted on the Internet, and the more information the teachers have the better armed they are to recognize some of the danger signs," Rice said. "One of the signs could be if a child becomes more reclusive and spends a lot of time on the Internet."

Rice said more than 30 million children in the United States use the Internet, and one in four had unwanted exposure to sexually explicit pictures. About one in five received a sexual solicitation, one in 33 received an aggressive sexual solicitation and one in 17 was threatened or harassed.

She said one can't know what will pop-up in a browser and encouraged the young teachers to use Internet filters as much as possible and pay attention to what their students are doing online.

She said the teachers need to give their students the tools and information they need to protect themselves and their personal information, and be their protector at school.

"Your primary role is to protect the kids," Rice told the teachers. "For some students, school is their only sanctuary. You have to be their ally."