The Call Heard Round the Web

Anne Collier calls out a generational tech clash on her NetFamilyNews blog, recounting the story of Washington, D.C. area high school senior who called the home of his school district's chief operating officer when a light snowfall did not yield a desired school closing.

You can imagine how annoyed the Fairfax County Schools COO's wife was to get such a call. So much so that she called the 17-year-old's cell phone back and left an angry message, capped off with: "Get over it, kid, and go to school!"

Darned if she didn't think her message would only be heard by the "kid" and not tens of thousands of people after he posted an audio link to his Facebook page, and a friend uploaded it to YouTube. 

The Washington Post reported that the senior, Devraj Kori, has apologized and regrets his actions; he also served a day's detention since he violated school rules and made the call on his cell phone from school during school hours. And the administrator has changed his phone number to an unlisted number, regrettably. "I resent frankly that I can't rely on the civility of the community to guarantee my privacy," Dean Tistadt, the COO, said.

There are lessons to be learned on both sides of this messy ordeal. Adults need to realize the line between public and private has grown very thin with lots of teens. (Though it's still a rare teen who would do what Kori did.) And kids comfortable with putting their phone conversations on the web need to know boundaries exist for a reason and that their actions can hurt other people.

LINKS: Remorse, Detention for Snow-Day Caller [Washington Post] 

In Cyberspace, Everyone Can Hear You Scream [Washington Post]