Anoka-Hennepin 8th Graders Win National FBI Safe Online Surfing Internet Challenge
Eighth-grade students from four Anoka-Hennepin School District middle schools won the National FBI Safe Online Surfing (FBI-SOS) award for schools with more than 100 participants. The eighth graders in Steven Burrill’s computer explorations classes at Jackson, Northdale, Oak View, and Roosevelt Middle Schools scored a composite score of 92.75 percent to win the December 2017 award.
Open to all public, private, and home schools nationwide, the FBI-SOS initiative is a free, age-appropriate, competitive, and fun online program that promotes cyber citizenship and teaches students in third through eighth grades how to recognize and respond to online dangers-like Internet predators and cyberbullying-and covers topics such as social networking and gaming safety. Every month during the school year, the FBI recognizes the top-scoring schools in each of its three size categories, based on the number of students participating from each school.
For the month of December 2017, a total of 96,718 students at 1,642 schools in 51 states and U.S. territories participated in the FBI-SOS Program. In December, when the 267 eighth graders at four Anoka-Hennepin middle schools posted their composite national-winning score, a total of 96,718 students took the exam nationwide to compete for the three awards.
FBI Minneapolis Acting Special Agent in Charge Robert C. Bone II will present a certificate to Mr. Burrill and some of his students during an “awards celebration" at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, March 26, 2018, at the start of the Anoka-Hennepin School Board meeting. The board meeting is open to the public and will be held at the Sandburg Education Center, 1902 Second Avenue, Anoka, Minnesota.
The FBI-SOS Internet Challenge was developed with the assistance of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and with the input of teachers and schools. Anyone-young or old, in the U.S. or worldwide-can complete the activities on the FBI-SOS website. The testing and competition, however, are only open to students in grades 3-8 at public, private, or home schools in the United States or its territories.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
