Health students at Syosset High School were treated to an informative and eye-opening assembly on May 5, when they welcomed attorney Mark Schneider to the little theater for multiple sessions about Internet safety and practices.
Schneider spoke to the 11th-graders in earnest about the legal and social consequences of their behavior online and on their phones.
From posting personal or damaging information on Facebook and Twitter, to using social media to bully others, Schneider pulled up numerous accounts of how this behavior has led to real-life impacts, such as termination from employment, prison time and even death. The principal message: what is shared over the Internet or through the phone has a permanent record, and many agencies, including law enforcement, can subpoena those records at any time.
The 45-minute presentations gave students much food for thought, as Schneider drew from his experiences as an attorney to illustrate the seriousness of poor choices in cyberspace. The assembly was arranged as a volunteer gesture by Schneider to help fulfill the school’s commitment to character education and provide space to discuss human health and safety issues that greatly affect adolescents.
