December 05, 2003
Public with Privacy

Anyone happen to catch Boston Public tonight?

Interesting storyline: The Assistant Principal tries to track down porn sites that kids are checking out on the library's computers. In the process, he discovers that someone has been visiting Al-Qaeda's website. Under the auspice of doing the right thing to protect his students, the Principal contacts the FBI, who arrive at the school prepared to investigate. With predictable racial profiling, the lone Arab male student is interrogated and admits to visiting the site. He speaks credibly of his desire to learn about his culture and why his people have so much hatred for the USA.

It's not long before the word gets out and the kids begin their own brand of terror on the boy and his sister. By the end, the father has pulled his kids out of the school and the Principal gives a predictably moving sermon to the student body showing that they are the real terrorists.

I thought it was noteworthy the way they portrayed the FBI's anti-terror investigations as creating more problems than solutions. And of course, I was pleased to see one teacher demonstrate outrage at the privacy violations that would clearly compromise future library usage (Huzzah!).

Comments?
Posted by Greg at December 05, 2003 09:11 PM | | Trackback (17)
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