In Missouri in particular, a rash of student-teacher sexual relationships have spawned crackdowns on social-networking friendships. Web site badbadteacher.com, which keeps track of teachers disciplined, arrested and convicted of inappropriate behavior with students, lists 11 such teachers from Missouri within the last two years. Which is why state legislator Jane Cunningham is sponsoring a bill in the Missouri House of Representatives that would ban elementary school teachers from having social-networking friendships with their students. Turner said he understands the reasoning for the bill. He acknowledged that in some cases, teachers have become the public face of inappropriate Facebook and MySpace relationships with kids. “I see where they are coming from,” Turner said. “You can’t argue with people whose intentions are trying to protect children. But the simple fact is, you take these people who prey on children and they are going to find a way to do it, whether it’s over Facebook or not.” Those teachers are ruining it for the ones legitimately trying to help children, Turner said. “There are so many kids who are stubborn against anything teachers say, who are struggling in the classroom and refuse to ask for help,” Turner said. “When it’s so hard to reach these kids, why would you remove any of the weapons at your disposal to make a difference?” Facebook does not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under the age of 13 or knowingly allow such persons to register, according to its Web site. Users must be at least 14 to register on MySpace, although such age restrictions are difficult to enforce. In addition to the bill in the Missouri legislature, other school boards, teacher unions and parent-teacher associations across the country are drafting policies and issuing advisements about which online or text-messaging relationships are acceptable. The Lamar County School Board in Missouri recently implemented a policy forbidding teachers and students from having any text-message conversations or social-networking friendships. Jim Keith, an education lawyer who represents several school boards in Missouri, has been giving talks to teachers in which he explains that most of the inappropriate student-teacher relationships start out on a friendship level. Keith spoke of one instance where a parent thought her child was spending extra time with a teacher who was trying to help her child overcome shyness. At Keith’s urging, they checked the child’s phone bill and found 4,200 text messages between the teacher and student. “As an educator, there is a line of demarcation between you and your student,” Keith said. “It’s a line that you cannot come close to, let alone step over. You’ve got to establish it from Day One and say, ‘I’m not your buddy; I’m not your friend; I’m just your teacher.’ ” Keith agrees that teachers sometimes need to communicate after school with students about educational matters, but he said that’s why teachers in Missouri have their own class pages hosted by their school districts. Those pages eliminate the need for Facebook or MySpace, he says, and allow the schools to monitor all student-teacher communication. Many students, including Dixie Johnston, a senior at Hickman High School in Columbia, Missouri, said that although their teachers have school-sponsored pages, most students rarely check them. Turner insists that Facebook and MySpace aren’t the evils that regulators should be after. Instead Turner wishes the focus remain on vetting the teachers being put in charge of the nation’s youth. “It’s a sad thing, but with teaching you are going to have people who are attracted to the profession because of easy availability of kids,” Turner said. « Latest news about Business And Finance and Computers And Internet

In Missouri in particular, a rash of student-teacher sexual relationships have spawned crackdowns on social-networking friendships. Web site badbadteacher.com, which keeps track of teachers disciplined, arrested and convicted of inappropriate behavior with students, lists 11 such teachers from Missouri within the last two years. Which is why state legislator Jane Cunningham is sponsoring a bill in the Missouri House of Representatives that would ban elementary school teachers from having social-networking friendships with their students. Turner said he understands the reasoning for the bill. He acknowledged that in some cases, teachers have become the public face of inappropriate Facebook and MySpace relationships with kids. “I see where they are coming from,” Turner said. “You can’t argue with people whose intentions are trying to protect children. But the simple fact is, you take these people who prey on children and they are going to find a way to do it, whether it’s over Facebook or not.” Those teachers are ruining it for the ones legitimately trying to help children, Turner said. “There are so many kids who are stubborn against anything teachers say, who are struggling in the classroom and refuse to ask for help,” Turner said. “When it’s so hard to reach these kids, why would you remove any of the weapons at your disposal to make a difference?” Facebook does not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under the age of 13 or knowingly allow such persons to register, according to its Web site. Users must be at least 14 to register on MySpace, although such age restrictions are difficult to enforce. In addition to the bill in the Missouri legislature, other school boards, teacher unions and parent-teacher associations across the country are drafting policies and issuing advisements about which online or text-messaging relationships are acceptable. The Lamar County School Board in Missouri recently implemented a policy forbidding teachers and students from having any text-message conversations or social-networking friendships. Jim Keith, an education lawyer who represents several school boards in Missouri, has been giving talks to teachers in which he explains that most of the inappropriate student-teacher relationships start out on a friendship level. Keith spoke of one instance where a parent thought her child was spending extra time with a teacher who was trying to help her child overcome shyness. At Keith’s urging, they checked the child’s phone bill and found 4,200 text messages between the teacher and student. “As an educator, there is a line of demarcation between you and your student,” Keith said. “It’s a line that you cannot come close to, let alone step over. You’ve got to establish it from Day One and say, ‘I’m not your buddy; I’m not your friend; I’m just your teacher.’ ” Keith agrees that teachers sometimes need to communicate after school with students about educational matters, but he said that’s why teachers in Missouri have their own class pages hosted by their school districts. Those pages eliminate the need for Facebook or MySpace, he says, and allow the schools to monitor all student-teacher communication. Many students, including Dixie Johnston, a senior at Hickman High School in Columbia, Missouri, said that although their teachers have school-sponsored pages, most students rarely check them. Turner insists that Facebook and MySpace aren’t the evils that regulators should be after. Instead Turner wishes the focus remain on vetting the teachers being put in charge of the nation’s youth. “It’s a sad thing, but with teaching you are going to have people who are attracted to the profession because of easy availability of kids,” Turner said.

Computers are far from being truly clean machines, but Dell Inc. and other PC makers are trying to make their own business operations greener.

Dell said Wednesday its facilities worldwide are now carbon neutral, a goal the Round Rock, Texas-based company had set to achieve by the end of 2008.

Dane Parker, its director for environment, health and safety, said Dell buys renewable energy — including wind, solar and methane gas — directly from utilities to fulfill one-fifth of its energy needs.

There is not enough green energy available for all of Dell’s requirements, so for the other 80 percent, Dell buys regular “brown” power, Parker said, plus enough renewable energy credits to offset that power’s carbon emissions. Those credits subsidize purchases of renewable energy by other organizations, in places where more green power is available.

Dell’s preference for renewable energy isn’t just about global warming or public relations. Buying green power at a predictable cost can serve as a hedge against rising oil prices.

The company also said it has cut its energy use with more efficient lighting, modern climate control systems and software that shuts off idle office computers after hours, for a savings of $3 million a year, or about 5 percent of its annual energy bill.

Dell isn’t the first company to declare its operations carbon neutral, but it’s the first global high-tech player to do so, said Stephen Stokes, a climate change and business analyst for AMR Research. “They do deserve some congratulations,” Stokes said, noting that the company took steps beyond just buying energy credits.

“Even if you were the worst carbon emitter in the world, if you wrote a huge check … you could claim to be carbon neutral,” he said.

Dell, the world’s second-largest computer company, also is ahead of No. 1 PC maker Hewlett-Packard Co. on this matter.

HP said in 2007 it purchased credits to offset 2 percent of its worldwide energy use, and bought green power for a relatively small portion of its operations. The Palo Alto, California-based company did say that its energy consumption fell 4 percent in 2007, and that it is consolidating its power-sucking computer clusters known as data centers.

Parker said Dell still aims to make products in a more environmentally sensitive manner and to increase electronics recycling.

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