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- Welcome to the Stony Brook School guidance web page. We look forward to helping all our students have a successful experience!
Guidance Department Staff
2009-2010
Mr. Nilsen Guidance Counselor |
Mrs. Westberg Guidance Counselor Grade 7 |
Mrs. Ewing Guidance Counselor |
Mrs. Fulreader Adjustment Counselor Grades 6-8 |
Internet Safety
Helpful Links
Time to Talk - tips for parents to keep kids health and drug free. |
Time to Act - if you suspect your child is using drugs or alcohol. |
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Cyber Safety Presentation
Westford Academy Peer Leaders and Officer Michael Croteau - Westford Police Department Safety and Crime Prevention unit - came to Stony Brook on Friday February 26th to speak with 7th and 8th grade students about cyber safety, social networking, and cyberbullying.
There were be two presentations in the auditorium followed by small group discussions in homerooms with WA peer leaders. The sixth grade will have a similar presentation focused on the netsmartz curriculum on March 26th. Parents are encouraged to preview this presentation by downloading the powerpoint from this link. Netsmartz: Tweens Presentation
These presentations are part of an initiative to address growing technological use as well as the social, emotional, and legal implications for the misuse of technology. Click on this link to download the Powerpoint presentation used for the 7th and 8th grade assemblies.
Cyber Safety Presentation 0225.ppt
Tips to Prevent Sexting
- THINK ABOUT THE CONSEQUENCES - of taking, sending, or forwarding a sexual picture of someone underage, even if it’s of you. You could get kicked off of sports teams, face humiliation, lose educational opportunities, and even get in trouble with the law.
- NEVER TAKE images of yourself that you wouldn’t want everyone—your classmates, your teachers, your family, or your employers—to see.
- BEFORE HITTING SEND, remember that you can’t control where this image may travel. What you send to a boyfriend or girlfriend could easily end up with their friends, and their friends, and their friends...
- IF YOU FORWARD a sexual picture of someone underage, you are as responsible for this image as the original sender. You could face child pornography charges, go to jail or be forced to register as a sex offender.
- REPORT any nude pictures you receive on your cell phone, computer or video game system to an adult you trust. Do not delete the message. Instead, get your parents or guardians, teachers, and school counselors involved immediately.
Resources for this article provided by:
Our Techno-Youth
Children and adolescents have grown into a technological world where the primary means of communication among their peers include instant messaging, text messaging, and online blogs/diaries like that on MySpace and Xanga. Such advances in communication are not without cost when youths are sophisticated with technology but socially immature concerning online safety. This has lead parents, school administrators, and psychologists to worry about the effects of cyberabuse.
The most popular on-line social networking service among teens and netizens is MySpace and Facebook. MySpace and Facebook enable users to share information and interact with one another utilizing an extensive collection of communication options; however, the vast number of users alone demands our attention that this forum be considered as a prime target for harassers, cyberbullies, child predators, and scam artists. A simple scan of MySpace clearly shows provocative pictures and explicit language as standard features on most users pages leading parents to wonder how we can protect our children from the dangers of posting too much, or unwise, information about themselves.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reported 1,224 incidents of online enticement of children by adults and estimates that one in five children receive sexual solicitations online. Many of these blogs have become the modern equivalent of diaries with the potential of 700 million people able to read and rate any information that is uploaded to a child's profile. It is also not uncommon for underage minors to obtain membership despite the sites minimum age restriction of 14 years old. Moreover, this social networking can turn into antisocial behavior because cyberbullies don't have to confront their victims directly, feeling uninhibited and making their messages more vicious than they
would in a personal confrontation.
A study conducted by i-Safe America, a nonprofit Internet safety group, revealed that nearly 60 percent of 4th through 8th graders have had mean or hurtful things said to them online with nearly a third stating that they had been threatened. Bullying is no longer confined to just the school day; technology allows cyberbullies to harass their victims after school and on weekends.
WiredSafety and i-Safe both agree that that knowledge is the key to prevention of your child becoming a victim of exploitation, cyberbullying, and on-line harassment. Proponents of internet safety urge parents and school administrators to discuss cyberbullying and internet safety with children before it becomes a problem.
The following suggestions have been offered as protection to families from the ills of the internet.
- Tell children to never share personal information online
- Limit amount of time children spend online
- Computers should be located in central areas around the home, such as dens, living rooms
- Purchase tracking software that can block inappropriate messages and websites, as well as track online activity
- Ask your child to report threatening messages and print messages if harassment continues
- Assure bullied children that you will not take away the phone or computer
- Never respond to a bully
- Report threatening situation to bullies internet service provider
- Change your child's email address if necessary.
Great site for parents as well:
GRADE 8 NEWS
Please go to the top of the page and click on the Grade 8 link under Mrs. Ewing's name to access information regarding
the course selection process for Westford Academy!
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