Middle school student suspended for opening door

[goof2]

Originally Posted by defector

Schools lock all the doors nowadays? Is this pretty standard?
My kid's school has security at all entrances, but to my knowledge the doors aren't locked.

The doors are only locked so they can't be opened from outside. Someone inside can still open them though. School designers worry about having enough exits in case of a fire so they put doors all over the place. The school administrators worry about having a ton of unmonitored doors all over the place allowing people to come and go as they please so they lock the doors to entry. I still remember a few of the more "problematic" doors when I was in school being chained shut.

I don't see the big deal about this. It doesn't sound like the school made any secret of this rule. The kid, even though he apparently had noble intentions, broke the rule and received the specified punishment. I doubt a (justified) one day suspension in middle school will keep this A student out of the Ivy League. I just hope the woman he let in was also informed of the result of her decision to not follow the policy.

[Homeslice]

Originally Posted by Kaneman

The place I used to work would hire "decoys" to try to convince people to let them in so Human Resources could fire those people. The decoys were usually nicely dressed and attractive women who had a story about forgetting their badge, and people would do something nice, let them in, and then get fired for it.

What line of work was this? Unless it was a defense contractor, I can't see any private enterprise being worth that kind of security.

Sounds like a make-work project by HR dipshits with nothing better to do than interfere with the lives of those who pay their salary.

[goof2]

Originally Posted by Homeslice

What line of work was this? Unless it was a defense contractor, I can't see any private enterprise being worth that kind of security.

Sounds like a make-work project by HR dipshits with nothing better to do than interfere with the lives of those who pay their salary.

I can see this making sense at any place where theft is, or could be, an issue.

[defector]

Originally Posted by goof2

I don't see the big deal about this. It doesn't sound like the school made any secret of this rule. The kid, even though he apparently had noble intentions, broke the rule and received the specified punishment. I doubt a (justified) one day suspension in middle school will keep this A student out of the Ivy League. I just hope the woman he let in was also informed of the result of her decision to not follow the policy.

Sounds about right to me. Learning experience.

[Homeslice]

Originally Posted by goof2

I can see this making sense at any place where theft is, or could be, an issue.

Even including firing people for it?

As for theft, you could (correctly) make the argument that theft is a risk at EVERY workplace. But some industries justify severe measures more than others. Defense contractor yes. Dippy little mortgage or insurance company no.

Maybe they should also require that laptops be screen-locked after a mere 10 seconds of inactivity, based on the remote possibility that someone might read or steal your data during those 10 seconds (more like 2-3 seconds since the thief would have to wait 7-8 seconds for the owner to walk away)

[Kaneman]

Originally Posted by Homeslice

What line of work was this? Unless it was a defense contractor, I can't see any private enterprise being worth that kind of security.

Sounds like a make-work project by HR dipshits with nothing better to do than interfere with the lives of those who pay their salary.

Auto finance. And it didn't have anything to do with security or the safety of employees. If they cared about that they wouldn't have made the entry wall out of BREAKABLE GLASS. No, this was simply an excuse to lay people off without paying unemployment once the economy started tanking and they needed to thin the herd.

[goof2]

Originally Posted by Homeslice

Even including firing people for it?

As for theft, you could (correctly) make the argument that theft is a risk at EVERY workplace. But some industries justify severe measures more than others. Defense contractor yes. Dippy little mortgage or insurance company no.

Maybe they should also require that laptops be screen-locked after a mere 10 seconds of inactivity, based on the remote possibility that someone might read or steal your data during those 10 seconds (more like 2-3 seconds since the thief would have to wait 7-8 seconds for the owner to walk away)

Sure, why not? If an employer is willing to trade the loss of productivity that would naturally result from a policy like that for the dubious additional security where is the problem? Either way having uncontrolled random people walking around their facility can be a bad idea for a number of reasons. I already mentioned theft, but there can be liability issues as well. I fail to see how setting a simple policy to prevent that is unreasonable.

[Trip]

Originally Posted by Homeslice

Even including firing people for it?

As for theft, you could (correctly) make the argument that theft is a risk at EVERY workplace. But some industries justify severe measures more than others. Defense contractor yes. Dippy little mortgage or insurance company no.

Maybe they should also require that laptops be screen-locked after a mere 10 seconds of inactivity, based on the remote possibility that someone might read or steal your data during those 10 seconds (more like 2-3 seconds since the thief would have to wait 7-8 seconds for the owner to walk away)

If you leave your computer unlocked when you leave your desk where I am at, you can technically get in a lot of trouble for it. It's rarely enforced.

If you leave doors open, you will be talking to guys carrying assault rifles.

[Homeslice]

Yeah but don't you work at a nuke plant?

That's a lot different than some generic business.

In most cases I think security policies are dreamed up to help IT & HR people justify their jobs.

[Kaneman]

Originally Posted by Trip

If you leave your computer unlocked when you leave your desk where I am at, you can technically get in a lot of trouble for it. It's rarely enforced.

My former employer fired people for that too, and for leaving paperwork on their desk when they got up to go to the bathroom. It didn't even have to be confidential type information.