Beachwood Middle School Wins December 2012 Award in National FBI-SOS Internet Challenge

Beachwood Middle School has earned the FBI-SOS (Safe Online Surfing) Internet Challenge’s National Award for December 2012 in the small group (five to 50 students) “Starfish” category. Beachwood Middle School students posted the best scores in the country to claim the highly coveted national award.

As FBI-SOS Internet Challenge National Champions for December 2012, students at Beachwood Middle School will receive the FBI-SOS National Trophy and a visit from the FBI. The official award ceremony will take place on January 23, 2013, at Beachwood Middle School located at 2860 Richmond Road, Beachwood, Ohio.

Under the guidance of Julie Ungier, the students produced the top cumulative results on the FBI-SOS Internet Challenge post-quiz. The FBI-SOS is an Internet safety program developed and administered by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

For more information about the free FBI-SOS program, please log on to https://sos.fbi.gov or contact the Cleveland FBI Community Outreach Specialist, Colleen Brown, at 216-522-1400. The new SOS website is free and is designed for students from the third to eighth grades. Each grade has its own age-appropriate “island” where students learn key cyber security concepts through interactive content and games. The topics—designed to meet state and federal Internet safety mandates—include cyber bullying, how to protect personal information, online predators, instant messaging, copyright and fair use, reporting, social networking, cell phone safety, and gaming safety. The program is open to public and private schools and is designed to meet state and federal Internet safety mandates.

The goal of the program is to provide students with knowledge about how to avoid dangerous situations on the Internet, specifically Internet predators. Each month students from registered schools learn about Internet safety as they participate in online games and activities. Upon completion, the students take an online quiz to test their knowledge. At the end of each month, three trophies (one for each school size category) are awarded to the schools with the highest scoring students on the FBI-SOS post-quiz.

Teachers who wish to participate in the Internet Challenge can sign up through a special section of the website and enroll their classes by grade. Students receive an electronic token (passcode) from their teachers that enables them to take an exam for their respective grade-level. The tests are graded electronically, and the schools (not individual classes) are ranked on a national leader board that is posted online. At the end of each rating period, winning schools in small, medium, and large categories are recognized by the FBI and, when possible, are visited by an FBI agent from the local field office. Any member of the public (parent or child) can surf the islands, but only those schools that have signed up can take the tests and win the competition.

Any questions regarding this news announcement can be directed to SA Vicki D. Anderson at 216-522-1400 or Vicki.anderson@ic.fbi.gov.