Tempest in a web site

By Tracy Cooper, McKinney Messenger - Thursday March 5, 1998

Eight-grader winds up in doghouse over high-tech spoof of Chihuahuas

When Aaron Smith, 13, created a web site, he never thought it would lead to such a tangle.

The Dowell Middle school eighth-grader and his web site have raised questions of free speech, the school district's authority limits and the implications of technology in the classroom.

In March 1997, inspiration for a new club struck Aaron and some of his friends while working on a slide presentation for school. One of the slides contained a drawing of a rat with what Aaron described as a "light sabre" sticking out of it.

He said one of his friends mentioned the similarity of the rat to a Chihuahua. Thus the Chihuahua Haters of America was born.

On the preface that hating the tiny canine was a spoof, that Chihuahuas are to be ridiculed and not harmed, Aaron recruited members for the club, assigned ranks and started plans for an "On Line Embassy", or web site.

But the name just didn't have a good ring to it.

Aaron changed the club's name by one word that would become noticed all over the nation.

Chihuahua Haters of the World (C.H.O.W.) sound much better. Little did he know it would hit the wrong chord, landing him and his club members in trouble with animal rights activists and the McKinney ISD.

"I think they got overly mad about it. All I did was have their name on it," Aaron said of the school district's reaction to the site.

The C.H.O.W. Site, a free site provided by Geo Cities, became part of a list server for Chow dogs.

Jan Ray, Chow breeder referral representative for Texas, was contacted about the site in January 1998 and found its contents offensive.

"Do you think it is OK for a child to think it is OK to destroy another animal?" the Fort Worth resident asked.

She contacted Aaron, asking that the name of the site be changed and told him via e-mail he had made a poor choice of words.  She then sent an e-mail to the superintendent of McKinney schools, Jack Cockrill, stating her dismay.

"I don't go out and look on the Internet for someone with a page about serving Chihuahua paws for dinner.  If children are going to use the Internet at school it should be supervised," she said.

But the site was created at home.

"I know he did it at home," said Rhonda Smith, Aaron's mother.  "He put it on there, it was just a joke.  It's hilarious--they even go to outer space.  I am very proud of him.  He is not an animal hater.  It was just kids having fun."

But school officials didn't see it that way.   Although they will not comment on the punishment of any students, MISD released this statement:

"We have checked into this situation and have found the site was not created in our computer lab and is not endorsed by any employees of the McKinney Independent School District.  We have also taken appropriate steps to make sure the site is in no way connected to the McKinney ISD site.  We regret the fact that this site may have offended or upset animal rights activists or anyone else who viewed this site.

We are not at liberty to discuss any punishment of the students related to the web site," Cockrill said.

"It's not so much protecting us but protecting the students' rights -- it's not our duty to report it to the media," said Diana Gulotta, MISD public information specialist.  "We're here for the welfare of the kids and commenting on a specific kid in regard to punishment would not be in the best interest of the student."

Aaron and other members of the club were called to Principal Dawn Smith's office on Jan. 22 and disciplined.

Aaron was removed from his Emerging Technology class and given out-of-school suspension for the day when he refused to remove the site from the Internet.  According to the discipline report, Aaron was punished for "Creating a web page implicating (a) Dowell animal hate group."

The C.H.O.W. site, said Gulotta, was "indirectly linked" to MISD and violated the district's Internet Acceptable Use Policy.

"There was a way you could get to it from our web site§," she said.

The policy states, "McKinney ISD provides Internet access to promote educational excellence in McKinney ISD schools by facilitating resource sharing, innovation, and communication.  McKinney ISD firmly believes that the valuable information and interaction available on the Internet far outweighs the possibility that users may procure material that is not consistent with the educational goals of McKinney ISD."

The policy outlines the risk of students accessing sites that may not be "of educational value."

Students also have to attend a workshop before any access is given.

Inappropriate use includes, but is not limited to, uses that "hamper the integrity or security of this or any networks connected to the Internet."

But Aaron and his parents maintain no link to the district's page was made, directly or indirectly.

"There was never a link to their page," Aaron's mother said.

"He's a good kid.  He's not doing drugs, he doesn't beat up on people or whatever else kids do," Smith said.  "We have taught our children that you don't fight with the teacher, you don't talk back to the teacher, or any authority for that matter."

At that point Smith and her husband went to the school to find out what the problem was.

"We don't want to ruin anybody's career, we just want people to know what is going on in our public schools," Smith said.   "They took a stranger's word over the word of a child that has been in the schools since kindergarten."

As far as contacting the Rays, Smith said they have "kept our noses clean."

"Unless we filed a lawsuit, the only other solution would be to get it out to the public." Smith said.  "We don't fee like a lawsuit would be the highest and best use of our money." Smith said.  "I really feel like his rights were violated."

Aaron likens the deletion of the web site to having his painting torn up in front of him.  "I do feel like they were threatening my work," he said.

Jay Jacobson, executive director for the American Civil Liberties Union's Austin bureau, agrees.  "There's no question about that," Jacobson said.

Smith contacted the ACLU after her son was removed from his computer class without her knowledge.

Ann Beason, staff attorney for the national legal department of the ACLU, said, "Clearly the school should not have control over something that was done in the student's spare time.

"There are a lot of schools that allow kids to create sites and put them on the school server."  As far as regulations for the Internet, Beason said there are existing laws involving freedom of speech and protected speech issues that apply to the Internet.  "We don't need any new laws," she said.

Beason compares punishing Aaron to schools' punishing of youngsters for cursing at home.

"The school has enough work to do controlling the kids at school," she said.

With the help of the ACLU, Aaron and others have been reinstated to their class.

"This was grossly over exagerated and they acted out of ignorance.  The administration had no knowledge of the Internet and reacted out of fear," said Phyllis Wiuff, whose son was also punished.

"Any time you offer something new to students with independent thinking, you have to look at rules around a situation like this," Gulotta said.

"I don't agree with the site but I will defend my son's right to free speech," Wiuff said.

The site was eventually removed from Geocities because of a technicality that Geocities is still investigating.

Demitri Smirenski, Geocities community liaison, said the reasons for suspending the site are either it was a sign posting or it had hidden messages or multiple addresses.

As to the content of the site, he said, "I didn't feel that it violated the guidelines; maybe it was a little tasteless."  He said he watches the web site to make sure the content keeps in line with the family, clean atmosphere.  He said sites that contain nudity or hate messages toward people are suspended.

Geocities provides one free web site and makes its money off the advertising.

Jacobson said the larger issue facing the ACLU is libraries using blocking programs to block out pornography, but also protected speech.

He said in Georgia people couldn't access the White House Home page because of the Monica Lewinski scandal.  The word adultery was picked up on by the blocking software.

"It is a new technology, a new experiment in communication," Jacobson said.

About the content of the C.H.O.W. page he simply said, "I like big dogs."  He said the content of the page is irrelevant.

As to Ray finding offense with the page, he said, "She had a perfect right to do that.  I think it was silly because it was so obviously a spoof.  You're talking about an eight-grade kid who has a tiny web site.

"As far as I'm concerned it's resolved.   Everybody gave up a little something."

Aaron said he is thinking about pursuing a career programming computers.  He said there are several places he can put the C.H.O.W. page on the Internet, but he just hasn't bothered to put it back up.

"I don't have a grudge.  I am not mad at them," Aaron said.

Back to Not the MISD Home Page

§ This is simply not true.  The MISD site did not have a link to the C.H.O.W. site at any time.