School Takes Boy's Internet Privileges Away

EAST LYNNE, Mo. -- A Missouri boy was kicked off school computers for the rest of the year after teachers said that he accessed pornography online, KMBC's Emily Aylward reported Tuesday.

Aylward said that Matthew Schooler (pictured, left), 13, pulled up WhiteHouse.org in class last week. Schooler's mom is fighting the school's action against her son because she said safeguards weren't in place and that the Web site wasn't pornographic, but a Web site that parodies the official White House Web site.

"I'm at a loss, you know. What did my son do that was so wrong," Tammi Rusk said.

Rusk told Aylward that she is concerned about how her son will keep up in class now that he has been kicked off school computers.

"It hurts because I want my son to have the best that he can, to do the best he can, and I feel they are depriving him," Rusk said.

Aylward reported that teachers at East Lynne Elementary School insist that Matthew was at fault for pulling up what they saw as a pornographic Web site and showing it to classmates nearby.

Matthew told Aylward that he was researching the White House for a school project and that his teacher suggested the Web site herself.

"We don't condone it. We don't like it and we discipline it," Superintendent Dr. Dan Doerhoff said.

Doerhoff insists that Matthew knew exactly what he was doing. The school district has Internet policies outlining "grave consequences."

"The information we had to act on was very certain, very definite and necessary. And the action we took was imperative," Doerhoff said.

"I've looked at the Web site and I don't see anything wrong there," Rusk said.

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