zlacker

>>revico+(OP)
Working in IT/tech for school district is the worst. My experience from many years ago - around 2002, I think:

1. First day on the job, email to boss: "Hey, the computer lab at Springfield High has a ton of known security flaws that are begging to be exploited."

2. Reply, 1 week later: "Sorry, we don't have any money for that. Just keep everything up-and-running."

3. 3 weeks later the computer lab at Springfield High got "hacked". All the computers displayed a popup window that said, "Miss Krabappel is a dyke!" (sorry for the offensive language)

4. Next day, email from boss: "The computer lab at Springfield High was hacked! Figure out how to fix this and make sure it doesn't happen again!"

5. A few days later Miss Krabappel filed to sue the school district. The local newspaper picked up the story.

6. Email from boss, in full panic mode: "I need you to figure out who hacked the computer lab at Springfield High so we can report him to the police!"

7. A week later an independent consulting firm was brought in to help identify the person behind the "hack". I heard they were paid $50K and found nothing. However, the kid got ratted out when he told all his friends. (It wasn't Bart Simpson! ;) )

8. Several weeks later: meeting to discuss working with a consulting firm that's gonna fix all the security issues because the current staff (me and my team) lacks the skills.

9. About 6 months later, I quit.

>>jimt12+1C
When I was a teacher my school IT was run as a petty fiefdom. I don’t know if it was outright maliciousness, or just extreme anxiety from the IT team lead about job security, but they were universally derided amongst staff (including some senior managers I knew) as being terrible to work with.

If I wanted to do something I would be told that there weren’t the resources. If I volunteered to be those resources — in my spare time! — I would be told it’s against policy. If I asked if we could revisit the policy I would be told I was welcome to ask the IT committee (closed door meetings, unminuted) to consider it for their agenda. Time passes. Proposal rejected.

I gave myself one term to see if we could find a working relationship. It obviously didn’t work out so I ghosted them and just did everything myself without asking, out of my own pocket. I felt like an asshole but at some point you’ve just got to move on, especially if your end goal is improving teaching and learning for the pupils.

>>gorgoi+Lq1
> It obviously didn’t work out so I ghosted them and just did everything myself without asking, out of my own pocket.

In my one experience in a university, this how it’s done. Just set you own stuff up, hope you aren’t discovered and ideally have a friend high up the ranks.