Advice Needed: Students trashing machines

[TheydonBois]

We have a large PC network of around 500 PCs, and currently have around 200 Dell Optiplex 745's, 200 Dell 755, and 100 Viglen machines (all on a 3 year lease on rotation hence three different models).

 

We had a spate of PCs being trashed by Students as they tripped the dual voltage PSU on the 745's, breaking around a dozen or so before we went round to all the 745's with a plastic laser cut covering to protect them.

 

Now the [insert your chosen expletive here] have been popping the blanking plate under the CD drawer (which they have also broken probably 30 to 40 of in the last two years) and stealing the RAM, in some cases grabbing all 4 sticks.

 

Anyone else had this problem, and what did you do to resolve it? It seems that the lessons run by teachers that dont 'own' the room are to blame, and tbh, I think we are looking at buying a flopy or card reader to fill the slot simply to stop them geting the RAM, which is now at around 50 sticks lost.

[jamesreedersmith]

How about super glue the blanking plate in place - the tech dept should have some suitable adhesive in stock i would think - quick nip round at the end of a day and bobs your mothers brother.

[TheydonBois]

We thought about that, but the fact that they are pushing in the ones already there means its another deterant rather than a fix. Plus, there are so many of these blanking plates already missing and we have already put a request into Dell for new ones which they cannot supply.

 

Thankyou for the reply though.

[jamesreedersmith]

Can you look at the logs for the last person who logged on and then bill their parents accordingly for all replacement parts needed - that will soon stop them.

[Edu-IT]

Supervision and severe consequences. It is theft, so perhaps the threat of police involvement?

[Griffo]

I have had some floppy blanking plates go missing, but as ours are mostly fujitsu machines there is then a metal blanking plate behind this, and then nothing behind that. You could perhaps try something similar to jamesreedersmith's idea? It may be possible to get a bit of plastic from your DT dept and then glue this to the metal chassis of the machine behind the front cover, you may need epoxy resin rather than super glue for this. Im not familiar with the construction of those Dells but it may be an idea untill you can get some blanking plates to be glued back to the front.

[6Foot2]

To the original poster: I feel your pain and you are not alone. We saw a lot of this and to a certian extent still do [One room wrecked three times in less than a week less than a week ago! :mad: ]

[penfold]

Locked when not in use suites ?

Id say its a teaching and learning issue ... The only technical issue here is who pays for the repairs.

Exactly my thoughts...

 

If people are not taking ownership of the room and this is the consequence then it is a SMT issue not technical. If your SMT are happy that your budget is being eaten up by unneccessary repairs then there is not a lot you can do about it. As others have suggested, you could check the logs for the last person and bill them, but they could just as easily tell you everything was fine when they used the machine last.

 

Me personally, I would fix things initially, but if it continued to be broken on purpose then it would go lower down on the priority list. Had a similar problem a few years back where problems were never reported due to no single teacher taking ownership of a room. As a result I would find the CD trays jammed with pencils etc or broken parts which looked like they had been like that for some time. This only changed when it became a single teachers room who would monitor the classroom properly and all rooms are now locked outside normal hours unless there is a teacher in there. Thing with anything like this is you need to stop it early and I dont see just replacing broken parts is the answer. Monitoring the use of equipment is important and disciplining anyone who misuses it.

[BatchFile]

Webcam (suitably situated), old computer and a little program called Dorgem that turns your webcam into a security camera (records still images every second and discards any that are the same as the previous one). There's your evidence, then bill them:D. Or disconnect the earth cable from the pc's.

[TheydonBois]

Just fired this email off to all the relant 'owner' teachers of the room, head teacher of ICT, my boss ( currently off sick) and the Burser:

 

Just to say that a IT request from xxxxxxx in RoomX has revealed that another 5 machines in his room are down due to RAM being taken from the machines, including ones that I recently replaced two weeks or so ago.

 

xxxxxx also has 1 machine down with the same problem.

 

A solution to this needs to be urgently looked at - myself and xxxxx have already exhausted the 24 sticks of RAM we had from PCs that had been decommissioned due to a blown PSU's, and now I need in the region of 15 or more sticks to repair the six machines in RoomX and RoomY.

 

One thought was too glue the blanking plates down, but this would be a little more than an extra speed bump in their time and seeing as how they apparently have enough time to be able to stick their hand inside a unit and dexterously remove RAM with the tips of their fingers. The gluing method is also hampered by the fact that lots of blanking plates have already been removed prior to this particular method of vandalism became apparent and also that Dell cannot supply us new ones to replace the ones missing.

 

A free solution could be to ensure that cover staff that use the room are vigilant enough to stop this from happening in the first place, or simply ensure that a class is not dismissed if a computer is not working at the end of a lesson when it clearly was at the start of it. There are no guarantees however that this would not happen and we would still be required to keep a stock or RAM for when they go missing again.

 

Another solution is to visit the machines in the larger rooms and fit a floppy disk drive into the slot, even if it's not connected, simply to stop them from gaining access. Floppy drives are becoming increasing rare these days and so have increased in price from costing less than 5 to being 15 upwards, so perhaps a card reader such as the following:

 

Akasa 3.5 Internal Multi Memory Card Reader - Misco.co.uk

 

We are talking about some 200 units though - and a cost of 1400 (which I am sure xxxxxxx could whittle down a notch) - compared to the 40 sticks of RAM (24 used and 15 to be fitted) that currently have a value approaching 800, which is only fixing machines already broken, and not resolving the issue.

 

Regards,

[TheydonBois]

Can you look at the logs for the last person who logged on and then bill their parents accordingly for all replacement parts needed - that will soon stop them.

 

Sadly, not proof. They dont need to log on to steal the ram, despite the fact that it is more than likely that they are taking the ram at the end of the lesson after they used it.

 

Supervision and severe consequences. It is theft, so perhaps the threat of police involvement?

 

Lets just say we have had incidents before that should have been resolved this way, and didnt.

 

Locked when not in use suites ?

 

Staff training ?

 

Id say its a teaching and learning issue ... The only technical issue here is who pays for the repairs.

 

Take the ICT suites out of action for a few days to let you glue gun the blanking plates.

Id get all of SMT to observe the problem, put forward your recommendations and let them decide on how to get staff to monitor classrooms correctly.

 

/agree

 

I would love to be able to stop the rooms from being used to 'teach a lesson' but we cant, and the Head is unlikely to hold up 6 rooms lessons for even 1 day.

 

I have had some floppy blanking plates go missing, but as ours are mostly fujitsu machines there is then a metal blanking plate behind this, and then nothing behind that. You could perhaps try something similar to jamesreedersmith's idea? It may be possible to get a bit of plastic from your DT dept and then glue this to the metal chassis of the machine behind the front cover, you may need epoxy resin rather than super glue for this. Im not familiar with the construction of those Dells but it may be an idea untill you can get some blanking plates to be glued back to the front.

 

The Dell have a plastic front plate designed to pop out easily, with no metal plate behind that. Ah, the good old days when you ripped your hands to shreds on a razor sharp edge of a case....

 

To the original poster: I feel your pain and you are not alone. We saw a lot of this and to a certian extent still do [One room wrecked three times in less than a week less than a week ago! :mad: ]

 

I am very very annoyed, especailly as the original room that has 5 down had 4 down during the half term just gone and I fixed all of those only to have the same room targetted again.

 

Exactly my thoughts...

 

If people are not taking ownership of the room and this is the consequence then it is a SMT issue not technical. If your SMT are happy that your budget is being eaten up by unneccessary repairs then there is not a lot you can do about it. As others have suggested, you could check the logs for the last person and bill them, but they could just as easily tell you everything was fine when they used the machine last.

 

Me personally, I would fix things initially, but if it continued to be broken on purpose then it would go lower down on the priority list. Had a similar problem a few years back where problems were never reported due to no single teacher taking ownership of a room. As a result I would find the CD trays jammed with pencils etc or broken parts which looked like they had been like that for some time. This only changed when it became a single teachers room who would monitor the classroom properly and all rooms are now locked outside normal hours unless there is a teacher in there. Thing with anything like this is you need to stop it early and I dont see just replacing broken parts is the answer. Monitoring the use of equipment is important and disciplining anyone who misuses it.

 

We suspect that the owners of the room are not to blame and its when the room is loaned to other teachers who are obviously not double checking things at the end of a lesson. See my email below - I hope to push things a little to get it looked at, but I suspect it will be ignored, they will buy the card readers and write off what has happened as an excercise.

 

Webcam (suitably situated), old computer and a little program called Dorgem that turns your webcam into a security camera (records still images every second and discards any that are the same as the previous one). There's your evidence, then bill them:D. Or disconnect the earth cable from the pc's.

 

Now I am known for my 'cunning plans' regarding the things that I would like to do to Students who have damaged 'my' equipment, but I suspect that would be a step too far. Sadly.

[elsiegee40]

Now I am known for my 'cunning plans' regarding the things that I would like to do to Students who have damaged 'my' equipment, but I suspect that would be a step too far. Sadly.

 

I don't think security cameras are a step too far. They are in place in the ICT Suites of both schools attended by my teenagers.

[TheydonBois]

I meant removing the earth.....

[elsiegee40]

I meant removing the earth.....

 

You mean you haven't done it already? I though it was mandatory in secondary schools

[Guest richard_s]

How about sharpening the edges of any chassis parts near to the blanking plates. Then follow the trails of blood back to the culprits.

[mounters]

We've got some Optiplex GX520 PCs here and had problem with pupils pushing the fronts in and feeding sandwiches and other such delights to the PCs. We went with the glue gun method of securing the blanking plates and just got our DT department to manufacture some replacements for those that were missing. This has been relatively successful and we hardly ever see any pushed in anymore.

[broc]

How about some UV contact gel/powder dabbed just inside the case...... coupled with a poster campaign across the school & demonstration to the students about how they will be caught if they stick their hands inside your systems?

 

A quick google revealed :

 

Glowtec UK - Catch-a-Thief with UV Security Dyes and Markers.

 

I have no idea if this product is any good, but for £40 it might be worth a try?

Edited November 11, 2009 by broc

[vikpaw]

Workbenches and Technical Furniture

 

The bottom two pictures are my old school.

We had similar problems so designed these.

 

The ultimate steel box, bolted to the steel desks and then to the floor. All cable in custom cable tray underneath. No buttons on the box, turned on and off, via software based teacher controls. security bolts used to prevent access.

 

The box on the desk is just a custom case, we bought the parts (mobo, RAM etc) separately and installed inside on custom panels. shipped in usb / audio sockets from far east for the mk2 version. mk3 was supposed to have CD drive space for older kids, but we never finalised it.

 

Spuff Monkey took a test standalone unit away from us, but never heard back if he ended up ordering any.

 

Any way, we make whole rooms out of this stuff, and you can choose color coating of metal and desk. It was so robust.

 

Only downside was that it takes time to build the PCs but we got some keen sixth formers in over the summer to help and built two rooms at a time.

 

oh yes the cost: i think the box for PC would be around £50, and the desk itself maybe £200. But it depends on how many you order and the room size and the longer the bench and less legs the cheaper to build and construct. Plus we got a great deal for being the demonstration school.

 

I do have better pictures on a hard drive but can't find it now, so just posted the link.

[SpuffMonkey]

Hi Vik

 

I was well impressed with your solution - but SLT vetoed the boxes because they didn't "look nice" and weren't a "branded" name - so we too have loads of Dell front plates being pushed in...*sigh*

[vikpaw]

Looks over Performance?

Who needs SLTs?!

So i guess if your kids are all in uniform it doesn't matter if they fail their exams.

I'm only kidding. Still it's a shame not many other schools have taken up the idea, but i guess it's a lot of hassle building your own machines, though we saved so much money that way, it was unbelievable, plus we didn't have to have support contracts on any of them. We just bought spares in advance and fixed things if they failed.

Mk3.5 was supposed to have adjustable TFT mounts too, which would have been so cool.

Anyway, trust you are well Mr Spuffmonkey.

)

[fawkers]

We had a few incedents like this, the darlings were pushing (punching) the blaking plate into the machine fishing it out and going for the RAM.

 

We put a bit of wood In-between the the blanking plate and the frame, after a couple of attempts they didn't do it again!

[CSI_Leasing]

With these machines being on a leasing agreement, I'd suggest any alterations being made to prevent this don't devalue the machines. Most leasing companies should accept fair wear and tear over the life of the equipment, but beware of charges for solutions that could affect the potential sell-on price for the lessor.

 

However, kit being returned with RAM missing is likely to be more costly in terms of charges I'd have thought - either that or the cost of you replacing it before returning the equipment. Maybe you can use the threat of penalty charges to persuade some pro-active handling of this situation from the powers-that-be?

[garoc]

How about housing the PC's in security cages:

 

Universal Tower Computer Security Cages - INCO Computer & AV Security

 

...initially a costly solution, but could save £'s in the long-run!

[TheydonBois]

The cost for those boxes would be huge, and I like the secret AV dust but as my college pointed out, thsi starts to make us into policemen rather than getting the issue resolved. It may be that we use the wood idea - Something slightly thicker than the blanking pate and a little longer will fit nicely within the recessed area an inch or so inside the case.

 

We also have to make sure no damage is done to the unit in case of Dell repairs etc that could invalidate our warrenty/licencing agreement.

[PeteM]

Had a similar problem a couple of years ago. Billing the relevant Department for any missing RAM or vandalism charges soon stopped 99% of the vandalism. The Depts had to pay up and everyone suddenly became extrememly vigilant. The Dept Heads would also take time to check up on the ICT suites that had supply teachers in. If it's not practical to bill the departments for the total cost, making them pay something might focus them