December+15

Return to Cyber Safety Meeting Notes


 * Cyber safety Meeting Notes** - December 15

On December 15th at the request of the Mayor;s Office, several DOE staff (Barbara Stripling; Natasha Howard; Rose Albanese-DePinto; Elaine Carman; Sandra Mummolo; Kenneth Garcia; Julia Levy and Andy Jacob; Troy Fischer; Lisa Nielsen; Susan Levine) met with two representatives of the Mayor’s Office (Karen Agnifilo, General Counsel, Criminal Justice Coordinator and Milissa Ballard, Legislative Counsel, same office). The topic was Cybersafety. Karen Agnifilo has done prior work in this area and is armed with cases of cyber-abuse.


 * Karen said several times that the Mayor wants a hard-hitting campaign to inform every child and every parent. She was “underwhelmed” by the array of materials already prepared by i-SAFE and other organizations. Her suggestions ranged from having a Cybersafety Week with various activities to creating NYC DVDs; TV broadcast(s); to unit “studies.” (She did say the educators were the best to take the lead on the content and venues.) Her initial target was for next school year.


 * There was discussion on what the DOE has done and is doing in this area.


 * The Mayor has not discussed this with the Chancellor to date.


 * When asked about resources, Karen thought she could get donations of time and creativity from experts, NYC TV station, and NYC Marketing, among others. She did not seem concerned about budget, although did not say that there is money for this.


 * Next agree-upon steps:
 * Karen will enlist private people to donate time and media (NYC Marketing, NYC TV station)
 * Lisa needs to share with Rose the iSAFE program scheduled for March
 * Troy will convene the DOE staff define what we want to do, need, can offer
 * Troy will schedule the entire group, including the Office of Youth Development, for January
 * Lisa, Barbara and Karen will meet with iSAFE to see what roles they can/will play in a NYC partnership

Several stated and unstated issues:
 * What does the DOE staff recommend to the Chancellor?
 * What does the Chancellor want to do?
 * Is this being mandated? Should it be? Will the Chancellor tell principals how to deal with this issue? Is this an important enough topic to be mandated?
 * How will the topic of cybersafety be infused into the instructional day?
 * Who at the DOE will take the lead on this project?
 * How can we get solid professional help to create excellent NYC materials and make this a splashy fun topic for students, relevant for parents and staff.