Crane High School was in The House today! I wish you would have seen the faces when we began to discuss the Digital Fingerprint and Digital Footprint. For some reason, students didn’t make the connection between their Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Vine, Snapchat and ALL that other social media they use with those images being a source of evidence for criminal cases, point of reference for job interviews, college scholarships and a host of other things. When I shared with them that EVERYTHING they do on line and EVERY place they go on line is being or can be tracked and traced… their eyes bucked WIDE open. Yep, I shared that law enforcement can gain access to old pictures, even if they have deleted them from their phones. One girl’s mouth shot wiiiiiiiide open and I had to touch her on the shoulder and tell her to close her mouth and STOP taking pictures of things that shouldn’t be photographed and sent via text. Then we discussed the digital footprint. It was a great day.
Crane has a GREAT group of young people. I understand Crane has undergone some MAJOR changes (wink wink). Although all of the students were awesome, two students stood out. I had all of the students to stand and introduce themselves with their first and last names and their future goals. One young lady stood up, head down, low voice and was rather ashamed to say her name. When she said her last name, I instantly knew she was African. I found out she was Nigerian. I told her to stand up. Hold your head up, look me squarely in the eyes and TELL ME YOUR NAME. TELL ME WHERE YOUR PEOPLE ARE FROM. I found out she is Nigerian. I shared with her my travels to Nigeria and shared that Nigerians are some very strong, smart, hardworking people with thousands of years of historical contributions. I told her she was ashamed of her people because she has allowed what she heard in America to shame her instead of learning her history and being proud of who she is.
The other person… I could tell he was a STRONG young man just by looking at him. He resembled the strength and confidence of a thoroughbred race horse. How about this brotha is about to spend a year in China!! Whaaaaaaa!!! AND, he wants to be a neurosurgeon. (You know I told him about Mr. Gifted Hands, Ben Carson, right??) I had him to speak Chinese to the class. I don’t know WHAT he said, but it sounded AWESOME!!!
Today, my soul was smiling! Thank you students at Crane!!