JAY — When Principal Scott Albert says he is monitoring student computer use, he’s not kidding.

Sixty-seven detentions were handed out at the Spruce Mountain Middle School in September and October for computer-related infractions.

Software allows Albert, support assistant Mark Bonnevie and technology coordinator Randy Easter to remotely check on what students are currently viewing or previously viewed on their school-issued laptops.

“It allows us to take a quick look at 343 computers,” Albert said Tuesday. There are 351 student laptops but some kids don’t have theirs at this time.

He demonstrated how it works by using two laptops of students who were absent and his own laptop that he uses to monitor students.

He logged into his computer and then logged on to one of the others. The same screen showed up on both monitors.

He then showed that he could tell what a student is currently using for computer programs. A list of names, grades and computer programs popped up.

“What it does is allow us to see quickly what some kids might be on,” Albert said.

One student was on Safari, an engine search site, and another was on Pages, a word processor site, he said.

Then he showed on the laptops he had that he can quickly click on the student’s name and their screen becomes his screen.

He’ll freeze their screen if he finds they are on an inappropriate site and send a message to the student using the laptop.

“Is this educational? Come see me. Screen locked by Mr. Albert,” the message said.

When students first get caught, they try to deny it, but once they see what information he can, they understand what’s going on, he said.

Sometimes a teacher calls to say the student has permission to be on a certain site, he said.

Albert said he recently locked a screen and it turned out the teacher was showing a DVD for the class over the computer.

Teachers may ask for Albert or another member of the staff to check to see what the student is doing because when they get close to the computer, the student clicks to another site.

Other times, teachers ask them to take a look at computer history to see if they were doing what they were supposed to be doing in class.

“This is just a quick way to see if they were on anything they’re not supposed to be on and I can see if parents are using (them) in a way they’re not supposed to under the parents’ log-in,” Albert said.

In the laptop he was looking at, he said, in this case a parent has never logged on.

The state has changed its philosophy so laptops are regarded as tools and need to be used at home, he said. Initially, students could not take laptops home or log onto the Internet at home.

Students know if they erase the history on the computer, they can get a penalty.

Another computer program allows him to look all through the laptop’s history, showing dates, times and what they were doing going back to the first day they received it, Albert said.

“If we have complaints, we can look to see if they did anything inappropriate,” he said.

It doesn’t have to be porn, it could be Facebook, he said.

They are not supposed to be on Facebook.

“The teachers have told the kids that we might randomly check computers,” he said. “There is a chance they can get away with something for a short period, but they will get caught.”

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