43
Canfield class covers counter-terrorism
By AMANDA TONOLI
CANFIELD
Student Savan- nah Maass went on “secret assignment” for a class assignment at Canfield High School.
She had to perform a counterintelligence task.
“I had to collect information on a principal without him knowing,” Maass said. “I had to come back and talk about it and see if anyone noticed what I was trying to do.”
Dean Conley, a social studies instructor who teaches one of the few counter-terrorism classes in the Valley, said the experiment is designed to let people know what dangers lurk on sites such as Facebook.
The goal is to teach students to protect themselves in the digital world.
“We gathered those things and presented those people with packets and told them, here is how people generate passwords, and if you’re using these things on your Facebook you might want to consider changing yours,” Conley said.
This is just one of many facets of counterterrorism that Conley teaches.
Students position desks in a circle, better suited for discussion, and respectfully talk with one another about assignments given and subjects they want to know more about.
“It is definitely more discussion-oriented ... It’s more talking and understanding,” said senior Sam Fritz.
Several students said they took this class because they didn’t know much about the subject, but wanted to learn more.
“The name of it [the class] is something that really popped out – terrorism and counterterrorism. It’s such a relevant issue you hear about all the time and not many kids or teenagers watch the news so to have a period a day to kind of sit down and talk about it gets us informed,” said senior Zachary Gierlach.
The class started with the history of terrorism in the 1880s through recent events, the Paris attacks, said senior Carson Markley.
Terrorism, Conley said, is based on instilling fear – most people are afraid of exposing their fears because it shows vulnerability. His goal is to teach students how to manage that fear.
Although the Paris attacks happened after the nine weeks were over, students discussed it in a special gathering this week.
The class discussed the value of viewing the Paris footage – about half of the students had seen it.
“I don’t really want to see 129 people dying,” Fritz said.
Conley challenged students to list good and bad benefits of seeing the footage and whether or not viewing it would prevent conflict or produce it.
“Whoever’s got something to say, they say it and we move right along. We discuss what they know and make sense and connect the dots,” Conley said.
Conley said he has to stay well-read to keep up with his class. Sometimes students come in and ask about events they have come across and want to talk about.
“I’ve found the students respect you more if you say, ‘I don’t know the answer to that, but let’s find out together,’” Conley said.
Another facet of cyber security stems from the terrorist attacks on U.S. cities on Sept. 11, 2001. Most students were either too young or not even born to remember the attack on New York and Washington, D.C.
“Trying to teach the effects of 9/11 and terrorism and counterterrorism is challenging for young people ... For us, it’s burned in our brains – it’s burned in my brain, where I was and what I remember – but for them it’s just secondary knowledge,” Conley said.
“Changes after 9/11 have changed the world, transformed the world in how they look at security. That’s motivation for having some class like this – this generation is connected to the effects of it [9/11].”