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Beanoir

macrumors 6502a
Dec 9, 2010
571
2
51 degrees North
Exactly. Its called being a kid. Luckily, you'll age out of it. Until then, suck it up and get used to it.

Exactly, you're a child, a minor, a non-voter, you have no adult rights and the reason you're still at school is to learn...

If your IT admin who understand the network, administer the network and have to fix all the problems caused by students that don't know much at all, then they are well within their right (as adults, teachers, professionals) to do what they ned to to protect the investment in their infrastructure.

Consider it a learning experience, these people know more than you.

I'm sure if you ask nicely they'll give it back.
 

Ace134blue

macrumors 6502a
Sep 17, 2009
734
2
Just to clear up a few things, the schools network was fully protected, so I was working without any Internet. Despite this, I was still a threat? I'm pretty sure the IT guy was just an idiot. I'm tempted to take the air again... But that's probably a bad idea right? :(
And so you know, i'm 16 and in my last year of high school, studying music. Logics pretty great to have around, and the schools music software is just awful; so I'd really miss not having it with me...
Thanks for everyones interest in the subject, it's really appreciated.

Take it back, and continue to use it. If is asks for it tell him to get bent, not literally. But dont give it to him. Theres nothing he can do if the teachers dont mind you using it.
 

Onimusha370

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Aug 25, 2010
1,042
1,516
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Beanoir said:
Exactly. Its called being a kid. Luckily, you'll age out of it. Until then, suck it up and get used to it.

Exactly, you're a child, a minor, a non-voter, you have no adult rights and the reason you're still at school is to learn...

If your IT admin who understand the network, administer the network and have to fix all the problems caused by students that don't know much at all, then they are well within their right (as adults, teachers, professionals) to do what they ned to to protect the investment in their infrastructure.

Consider it a learning experience, these people know more than you.

I'm sure if you ask nicely they'll give it back.

I wasn't attempting to connect to the network, no harm was being done
 

Beanoir

macrumors 6502a
Dec 9, 2010
571
2
51 degrees North
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)



I wasn't attempting to connect to the network, no harm was being done

Well tell the teacher/IT geek/whatever they are that then, don't get defensive and see what they say. I'm sure if they are reasonable they'll give you your netbook back, if not then go and pay a visit to the school head and explain you can't do your homework until you get your netbook back, and also that you promise not to use in school again (if thats the reason it was confiscated form you in the first place - rules are rules don't argue just accept)

Good luck
 

frogger2020

macrumors regular
Sep 10, 2006
209
39
Take it back, and continue to use it. If is asks for it tell him to get bent, not literally. But dont give it to him. Theres nothing he can do if the teachers dont mind you using it.

:rolleyes: You can definitely tell who the children are in this thread.
 

racer1441

macrumors 68000
Jul 3, 2009
1,870
668
One thing you have to know is that IT people that work in schools are most likely political appointees, they know nothing and are worth nothing.

Make sure you get your laptop back.
 

Beanoir

macrumors 6502a
Dec 9, 2010
571
2
51 degrees North
One thing you have to know is that IT people that work in schools are most likely political appointees, they know nothing and are worth nothing.

Make sure you get your laptop back.

Appointee...??? What are you talking about, it's not a position of office!!

Fact is in most places they probably get paid more than the teachers!
 

racer1441

macrumors 68000
Jul 3, 2009
1,870
668
Appointee...??? What are you talking about, it's not a position of office!!

Fact is in most places they probably get paid more than the teachers!

What school districts are you dealing with? I have yet to see a IT position that hasn't been filled by some teacher union's or school board member's relative.

You are right though, they make far too much money for the level of idiocy they exhibit.
 

NicoleRichie

macrumors 6502
Jun 30, 2007
435
1
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Rules... Damn rules!
 

Beaverman3001

macrumors 6502a
May 20, 2010
554
55
I would have told him hell no if he wanted my Air. If they wanted me to turn it off fine, but taking a device that expensive for some underpaid undertrained schmuck to mess up? Hell no.
 

Dilcue

macrumors newbie
Apr 15, 2011
2
0
Man, I remember this crap in high school. I hooked up my laptop on a school switch and upon obtaining an IP address, the entire district's network went black. Whoops.

My guess, based on such an experience, is they don't know how to react to such a slick piece of technology. Instead of asking questions, keeping an eye on you, the school took a defensive stance: no computer, no problem. ;)

If you are college-bound, poster, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised how that attitude changes and your MBA is instead embraced as a necessity in higher education.

Best of luck!
 

Onimusha370

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Aug 25, 2010
1,042
1,516
Man, I remember this crap in high school. I hooked up my laptop on a school switch and upon obtaining an IP address, the entire district's network went black. Whoops.

My guess, based on such an experience, is they don't know how to react to such a slick piece of technology. Instead of asking questions, keeping an eye on you, the school took a defensive stance: no computer, no problem. ;)

If you are college-bound, poster, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised how that attitude changes and your MBA is instead embraced as a necessity in higher education.

Best of luck!

Fortunately, I've only got 4 weeks left of high school, then I'm going to college after the summer break. Really looking forward to being treated more like an adult :)
 

Bakari45

macrumors regular
Jun 17, 2010
227
2
I'm not sure where this school is, or what level it is, but it's a damn shame that we have educational institutions out there that don't allow and even encourage students to bring computers to school. The education system needs to catch up with technology and learn how to teach using it. I'm not saying this is happening in all schools, but to ban the use of computers in school is seriously backwards. It's time the education system moves forward into the 21st century.

And no, OP should not have given up his computer. He should have demanded to be taken to the administrator so that he could call his parents to pick up the computer. This is a privacy issue, and not set of rules should be able to challenge these basic civic rights. If the IT had proof that OP was doing something illegal, then take it to the cops; otherwise, he should have politely asked OP to turn off his computer and not bring it to school anymore—because you see, the school is too retarded to allow students to bring laptops to school for educational purposes.
 

chrismacguy

macrumors 68000
Feb 13, 2009
1,979
2
United Kingdom
And I'm in the UK, so i'm not sure about legal information.

Then you dont have to give it up. Period. I'm in the UK as well, and Ive been hauled up about my habit of having a laptop with me right the way thru secondary school + sixth form(2003-2010 if anyone wants a timeframe). I just told them its worth too much to give up, and if they want they can send me home. Otherwise Im not going to let them take it, and if they think its a threat, the only place its going is with me, home. They can't force you to give it up under UK law. :D (As in just hold onto it, they cant pull it from you, they cant lay their hands on you, unless they fancy a nice little media storm, since it cant be construed as a dangerous weapon)

Also, if they continue to moan about his "network" then firstly point out you werent doing it, as the Airport card was deactivated, and then next time take a really old (Like PowerBook 1400 era - ie 1996) Laptop and let them haul you up about that under "hacking" - then point out it cant as it doesnt actually have any networking ports at all :D (After I pulled that one I was left alone by IT for the last 3 years of secondary school)

Oh and also ask why they didnt take everybody's phones on entry to the school, since just about any smartphone can do as much damage as any laptop to their network (Most phones, especially Android ones certainly could be loaded with hacking tools... )
 
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Onimusha370

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Aug 25, 2010
1,042
1,516
Then you dont have to give it up. Period. I'm in the UK as well, and Ive been hauled up about my habit of having a laptop with me right the way thru secondary school + sixth form(2003-2010 if anyone wants a timeframe). I just told them its worth too much to give up, and if they want they can send me home. Otherwise Im not going to let them take it, and if they think its a threat, the only place its going is with me, home. They can't force you to give it up under UK law. :D (As in just hold onto it, they cant pull it from you, they cant lay their hands on you, unless they fancy a nice little media storm, since it cant be construed as a dangerous weapon)

Also, if they continue to moan about his "network" then firstly point out you werent doing it, as the Airport card was deactivated, and then next time take a really old (Like PowerBook 1400 era - ie 1996) Laptop and let them haul you up about that under "hacking" - then point out it cant as it doesnt actually have any networking ports at all :D (After I pulled that one I was left alone by IT for the last 3 years of secondary school)

Oh and also ask why they didnt take everybody's phones on entry to the school, since just about any smartphone can do as much damage as any laptop to their network (Most phones, especially Android ones certainly could be loaded with hacking tools... )

thats awesome news, thanks for that! i'll continue to take it to school, and if he tries to take it off me again, i'll be sure to explain the above points to him. its crazy how little trust the school IT guys have in their students, especially when we're clearly doing work on our computers.
 

hehe299792458

macrumors 6502a
Dec 13, 2008
783
3
thats awesome news, thanks for that! i'll continue to take it to school, and if he tries to take it off me again, i'll be sure to explain the above points to him. its crazy how little trust the school IT guys have in their students, especially when we're clearly doing work on our computers.

I think pretty much all high school administrators are pretty much like that - though, if you look at it from their point of view, they'd want to avoid all possible trouble
 

caspersoong

macrumors 6502a
Feb 27, 2011
604
30
I bring my iPod and my laptop to school practically every day without written permission. I am the top student in my school. So it's ok. It is completely unfair that they do so to you.
 

bruinsrme

macrumors 604
Oct 26, 2008
7,199
3,065
Snip

If you are college-bound, poster, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised how that attitude changes and your MBA is instead embraced as a necessity in higher education.

Best of luck!

Yes colleges are far more network user friendly. Then again, look at the number of students paying tuition. Colleges and universities might have a little larger IT budget than a public school district.
 

Superflibbit

macrumors newbie
Apr 16, 2011
1
0
Bs!

I go to the same school as the original poster and I can tell everyone here that our IT department is absoloutely useless! Upon disscussion with around 90% of the teachers in school, every single one of them agree. The person who took is MBA from him is really awful and it pains me to even think about the fact he has any authority, I have seen many mistakes he's made which clearly shows to me that his knowledge of technology is severely limited and I have no idea how he got the job. It's certain that is very sour about his lack of power in the establishment and takes every oppurtunity to attempt to excercise any punishment. I'm not really a mac user, and so have a couple of normal PCs which I regularly take into school with me. No teacher has ever had a problem, and the same person who confiscated the MBA has seen me using it multiple times without issue. There is no policy that restricts the use of personal laptops, although phones are banned. In fact, most of my teachers reccomend and encourage to use of our laptops because they are much better and have better software. It seems to me that he was just very jealous about the fact he is too low paid to afford a mac and felt the need to try and confiscate it. For the record, the network is completely secure and encrypted, there are several routers around the school which are inaccessable so any communication with them is impossible without knowing the passkey. Also, the network is based around several servers which are all protected by hardware firewalls and protection devices and I know for a fact it is impossible for any computer unregistered and recognised to the network to have any connection so really it's complete BS the department have no idea what they are on about :')
 

impulse462

macrumors 68020
Jun 3, 2009
2,097
2,878
I agree with all the "you're a minor and you're in school to learn" etc. but if you take that attitude there are no "rebels" so to say.

The IT person has no right to take the computer away. I went to a high school that offered laptops at a discount price. If you did buy it through the school, in the contract you signed, there is a clause that says that the administration can take those computers away at any time of they "think" you're doing something illegal on it, which IMO is ********.

As for bringing you're own computer, no one at the school has any right to take the computer away. Sure he's a minor, learning at school, but everyone has rights. If it was his own computer, no one at the school has any right to take it away I think.
 

Mactrillionaire

macrumors regular
Oct 16, 2010
211
0
Next time someone accuses you of something, ask what evidence they have to support the claim. If there is none, just ignore them and continue what you were doing. Then later if this IT person persists just ask if he likes his current job or would like to find one somewhere else. That should do the trick.
 

MacRuler

macrumors 6502
Apr 16, 2010
287
0
Exactly. Its called being a kid. Luckily, you'll age out of it. Until then, suck it up and get used to it.

i understand mr. adult sir. but if your smartness would look throughout history, wouldn't you quickly find that this is how people are taken advantage of? Also how many problems are created?
 

racer1441

macrumors 68000
Jul 3, 2009
1,870
668
Fortunately, I've only got 4 weeks left of high school, then I'm going to college after the summer break. Really looking forward to being treated more like an adult :)

Take this advise. Don't retain anything from High School. Nothing you will learn there makes any difference at all in the real world. Nothing.
 
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