BY LAYLI WHYTE
Staff Writer
RED BANK — With students becoming Internet experts by the time they are in middle school, the borough’s schools will be the first in the county to take steps to ensure their safety.
Red Bank public schools will pilot a new Internet safety program sponsored by the Monmouth County Sheriff’s Office and the county superintendent of schools.
“Even our 3-year-olds go to the computer lab for instruction,” said Assistant Superintendent Dr. Elizabeth Keshish. “By the time they graduate from eighth grade, we have high expectations about their computer skills.”
The new Internet safety program was unveiled April 14 at the Red Bank Board of Education offices with Keshish, Schools Superintendent Dr. John Krewer, Monmouth County Sheriff Joseph W. Oxley and Middle School Principal Terence Wilkins present. County Superintendent of Schools Eugenia Lawson was unable to attend the meeting, but was reached for comments at a later time.
The Sheriff’s Office contacted Krewer and Keshish about piloting an Internet safety program that would eventually be implemented countywide.
The school administrators recognized the need for such a program.
“No sooner have we protected the kids from one invasion,” Keshish said, “than another one pops up another day.”
“As children get more and more sophisticated working online,” Krewer said, “the more threats there are.”
The program will be launched at a kick-off on May 5 at the Red Bank Middle School, with a viewing of a video produced by the Sheriff’s Office.
“The video was created in-house,” said Sheriff Joseph W. Oxley, “which makes it more cost efficient.”
A brochure was also produced in house, and both the video and brochure are nearly finished, waiting only for an added statement from Lawson.
The video and brochure, both titled “Safe Surfing: Using the Internet Safely,” present guidelines and suggestions for protecting one’s privacy.
They advise students not to give out any personal information online, including their real name and address, and to protect their passwords.
“Information that you provide can be used by strangers to harm or steal money from you or your family,” states the brochure.
The program is also designed to help kids protect themselves from online predators.
“Be careful of who you talk to online,” states the brochure. “People online aren’t always who they say they are and may have bad intentions.”
Students are also warned not to meet in person someone they have met online, and if they do, never to go alone to a meeting. They are also told to inform an adult if they accidentally come across a Web site or pop-up that is inappropriate for children.
The program is also designed to encourage students to be wary of e-mails from unknown senders, which may contain viruses and worms.
“I don’t think kids understand the real harm that’s out there,” Keshish said.
Keshish said that borough students use computers in many different ways, and that the school does the best it can to protect the children when they are using the computers at the schools.
“Our filter is updated daily,” Keshish said.
She said students use computers for videoconferencing with students from other schools, e-mail and research on the World Wide Web.
“We encourage teachers to give students specific sites to go to,” Keshish said, “instead of just letting them look for Web sites on their own.”
Middle School Principal Terance Wilkins said that students at his school use computers for language arts, math and social studies.
Keshish said that although only a little more than 30 percent of the district student body has computer access at home, these safety rules will also help protect children when using computers outside of school. She said she would be interested in teaching parents how to protect their children on their home computers.
“Every year,” she said, “each student and parent has to sign a computer-use policy.”
Oxley said that it is important to get the students talking about these issues with their parents.
“If we can get kids talking about these things,” he said, “we can help ensure kids will not have an uncomfortable or dangerous experience on the Internet.”
Oxley said he is pleased that the borough school district has agreed to be the pilot site for the program, adding that Red Bank is a very progressive school district.
County Superintendent Eugenia Lawson said Red Bank schools were an obvious choice because the district worked so well implementing the “Eight Rules of Safety,” a program that was introduced at the beginning of the school year.
“They really launched that program schoolwide,” Lawson said.
“The most important thing about this is that it is a partnership with the superintendent, the Monmouth County Sheriff’s Office and the schools adopting the program,” Oxley said.
In addition to the Internet safety program, the Sheriff’s Office is also expanding the Youth Identification Program, which will provide parents with annually updated pictures of their children.
“This will allow parents to have a recent photo of their child if they get lost,” Oxley said.
Lawson said that some schools already have programs such as this one.
“We want to make it available to every school in the county,” Lawson said. “Every year we are looking to expand our focus of safety for children.”