A small group of seventh-graders at Aldrich Junior High School received a visit from School Resource Officer Nelson Carreiro, who oversees all three junior highs, last Thursday afternoon.

The students weren’t in trouble; in fact, the visit was all part of a unit on Internet safety that all seventh-graders throughout the district are required to take.

“We don’t know how much parents know about their kids and how they use social media,” said Sandy Savella, library media specialist at Aldrich. “My objective is to increase students’ knowledge of Internet safety.”

Savella said the goal is to have 80 percent of kids increase their knowledge of Internet safety rules by the end of the unit.

“Many adolescents don’t have the knowledge to make safe and appropriate online decisions, whether using the Internet, cell phones or social networking sites,” she said. “Poor decisions can result in damage to a student’s reputation.”

The unit covers online safety, social networking, digital citizenship and cyberbullying. Students went over the first two components on Thursday and finished up the remaining components on Friday.

Savella said the role of school librarians has evolved into that of information specialists who wear many hats in their effort to “help our students become knowledgeable using the best possible print and electronic information sources.”

“Whether it’s an Internet safety unit like this and learning how to stay safe online with their personal social networking sites, or becoming conscientious digital citizens, or learning how to properly cite sources to credit the original author’s work, or learning how to take excellent notes from a website to stop the rampant copy/paste plagiarism that too many student are doing these days, school librarians are working daily with students to prepare them for the real world of information literacy,” she said.

To that end, Savella has teamed up with keyboarding teacher Gerri Baxter for the Internet safety unit.

“Students will choose a topic and team up with a partner to create a Power Point presentation, working with the keyboarding teacher, Gerri Baxter. She’s the best person because she teaches Microsoft,” Savella said.

Students began the unit by taking a pre-assessment survey. Following the survey, Savella asked the class a series of questions, including how many students had Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts, how many participate in online gaming with strangers, and how many know how to set their privacy settings on various social media sites. While about half of the students raised their hand when asked about Facebook and Twitter accounts, nearly all hands went up to indicate they used Instagram. Only five out of 25 students said they had little to no experience using social networking sites.

Savella said there are four types of online safety – physical, psychological, regulation/legal and identity/property.

Savella compared the online world to the real world and told students that things they do online are permanent and can be seen even after they are deleted. She recounted a story involving a student she knew who commented on a website that was set up by another student to mock one of their teachers. This occurred back when the students were in high school, and now the student, who has aspirations of going to medical school after graduating college, can’t do anything about the comment she left years ago because the page is still active and she feels she can’t ask her former classmate to take it down.

“You don’t think the [college] admissions people will look for things like that? They do,” Savella warned students.

Savella said another important thing to remember when it comes to online safety is that no matter how long you think you know someone online, you don’t really know them unless you’ve met them in person.

Savella told another story about a girl who unknowingly had her computer enslaved by a former classmate, meaning someone else had control of her computer without her knowledge, including her web cam. After she learned of what happened, she said one good thing to do is to cover your web cam with a sticker because you never know who may be watching.

“We’re not trying to make you nervous or scared,” Savella told students. “We’re trying to keep you safe.”

Savella told students to make sure their personal information stays private and encouraged them to get comfortable with the privacy settings of their various social networking sites and use them.

“If someone posts something inappropriate about you, save the evidence and report it to someone; don’t retaliate,” she said.

Savella then had Carreiro explain to students why retaliation is not the right way to handle a situation.

“If you retaliate to being bullied, you can be considered a bully yourself and I can’t help you,” he said. “If you don’t do anything in return, you have a better case for me to argue your defense.”

Carreiro also talked about a pending court case in Georgia involving a seventh-grader that had created a fake Facebook page to mock a classmate.

“When the parents found out about it, they punished their son and grounded him, but they never went back and made sure he took the page down,” Carreiro said. “After the punishment, the student went back to mocking the student and now the courts could go after the parents for being negligible.”

Carreiro stressed that the case is pending and something to keep an eye on, as it could affect how parents handle similar situations in the future.

Savella told students that standing by and doing nothing in certain situations, such as students fighting, can also get them in trouble. She told a story about two students that were caught fighting, and instead of bystanders stepping in to break up the fight, they watched and took out their cell phones to record it.

“Someone sent in video of the fight to the local news station and those students were on TV. They were all identified and got expelled from the school,” she said.

Then an Aldrich teacher said a similar incident happened at the school a couple years ago, and students that recorded a fight and posted it to YouTube faced consequences for their actions, though it wasn’t as severe as expulsion.

Savella finished up Thursday’s class session by showing students two different videos about what was discussed. The first involved a student about their age who was learning about Internet safety in his class and set up an appointment to meet with a girl he had met online. Little did he know it was a man posing as a girl. The man tried to kidnap the student, but the student was able to escape and call the police.

Savella said that is one of her favorite videos because it shows students that someone their age learning about a similar topic can still become a victim if he’s not careful.

“Students are aware of what can happen, but they don’t think it can happen to them,” Baxter said. “It’s amazing how many of them are using social networking sites and don’t realize what they’re actually doing.”

The second video was about a young girl who posted a lot of her personal information online, so much so that an undercover police detective, without using any of his skills as a detective, was able to track her down to where she lived and what her schedule was. He demonstrated this by watching her at a soccer game and following her home, before sitting her down and explaining who he was and why she needs to be careful about what information she shares about herself online.

Savella said 125 students at Aldrich are taking the unit now, which is about half of the seventh grade, and the rest will take the unit when it’s offered again in June.

“We work in conjunction with librarians Mary Tow at Winman and Chris Murphy at Gorton, as this unit is now part of the curriculum,” Savella said. “We enjoy teaching this class because the students really listen and get into it, and they do a great job with their presentations, which gives them practice doing research as well.”

Savella said she’s encouraged for next year, as Carreiro said he wants to work together regarding Internet safety.

“We enjoy this and think it’s extremely important,” Savella said. “If we can help at least one person stay out of serious trouble, whether we know it or not, it’s worth it.”