Selfies, Security, and the Surprise Wi-Fi Incident
When I worked as a special education teacher at a maximum-security juvenile detention center in Golden, Colorado, I was assigned a nearly impossible task: create a self-contained program for the most disruptive and violent students in the facility. On day one, tensions were high. The students knew the program was for the “worst of the worst,” and nobody wanted that label.
Fabio, a 15-year-old gang member freshly admitted to the facility, walked in with the kind of energy that makes the air feel heavier. To lighten the mood during our group check-in, we passed out tablets—devices we were assured had no internet access. The boys started taking selfies, smiling for the first time that morning, and the room’s energy shifted from defensive to playful.
About an hour later, as we began a writing activity, the Assistant Principal burst into the room. A parole officer had called. One of our students had posted a selfie online with the caption: “Having a Great F-ing time at (facility)!”
Apparently, the tablets were very much connected to the internet.
We expected bumps launching this program, but this wasn’t a bump—it was a whole mountain. And from that day on, we learned two crucial truths:
Never trust an administrator who says the internet is “definitely turned off.”
If you give these students an inch, they won’t just take a mile—they’ll take ten, post about it, add a hashtag, and go viral.
