FREE counter and Web statistics from sitetracker.com
collision detection
content | discontent
send me yours
March 02, 2005
This will go on your permanent record

High school has always been a hotbed of forgery: I remember kids sitting in the cafeteria, practising their parents' handwriting so they could generate fake notes. According to the New York Times' Education section, the age of high-tech document manipulation has moved that subculture into overdrive. As they report:

In interviews with principals across the country, many mentioned the ease of altering report cards and transcripts using desktop publishing software like Adobe Photoshop, which allows students to capture a school's seal off its Web site and paste it into a file to create an official-looking document.

One administrator told of a student who was caught forging his report card when the nearby Kinko's called the school to report that a student had left a copy of his grades on the copier. One principal said he had heard of students forging transcripts with generic-embossed seals to avoid paying for official transcripts.

So many schools have begun using secure, hard-to-replicate document stock from Scrip-Safe that the company began offering a product line specifically for academic institutions.

Posted by Clive Thompson at March 02, 2005 11:39 AM

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.collisiondetection.net/mt3/mt-tb.cgi/1157

Comments

I believe the appropriate response is: "Well don't get so distressed. Did I happen to mention I'm impressed?"

(just a random guy passing through)

Posted by: Haoran at March 2, 2005 9:48 PM

Interesting. But I'm not sure I'd be able to determine a fake seal from one created/provided by Scrip-Safe anyway. Yes they have a pile of security features but I don't think I'm about to use lasers and black lights to view my kid's report cards.

Posted by: Len at March 2, 2005 11:07 PM

Haoran, heh; Len, heh also.

Posted by: Clive at March 3, 2005 11:15 AM

Post a comment

Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)

NOTE: If you posted a comment and you can't see it -- try refreshing your browser.


Remember me?