Administrators Confounded by Internet Pranks

By Andrew Trotter

As more students crowd onto the Internet to do research for school, a troubling minority are using cyberspace for pranks, vandalism, and other offenses.

These mischief-makers are posing new disciplinary challenges for school administrators, most of whom are more accustomed to misbehavior expressed with a can of spray paint or a threatening note in someone's locker. When it comes to e-mailed bomb threats, computer viruses, and vulgarities about teachers posted on-line, they are often at a loss about how to respond.

"Our principals have been very hands-offish about the Internet," said Kenneth A. Wiseman, the technology coordinator for District 214, a 10,500-student high school district in suburban Chicago. "Many principals don't understand...