I just got off the phone with my beloved, computer-genius nephew. It would seem that the well-meaning technology department of his high school has a policy that prevents any students' lastnames from appearing on the school's website. In a quick spin around the school's impressive site, I found this to be poorly and haphazardly implemented. For example, an article in the online student newspaper shows the author's byline in the form Firsname Last Initial, i.e. "David E." But within the body of the article, a student is quoted at length with his full firstname and lastname shown.
I think it is enormously commendable to see schools attempting to provide guidance to kids about the best ways to manage the Internet's riches and risks. You can understand the folks in the technology department thinking that it's a best practice to protect the privacy and reputations of kids in a high school environment from being contacted by strangers or having a Google search lead someone to their school.
The reason we started talking about this was there is a prestigious science research program at this school where kids do real laboratory research in partnership with scientists at local universities. And when the research turns to published works, it would be normal and advisable for these bright students to get credit with their names associated with the work. So you can see where the school's policy gets a bit tricky. Who wants to try to convince the admissions' team at an Ivy League school that "Jane D" listed in a scientific journal is really "Jane Deutsch" and not another "Jane D"?
Are you running into these kinds of issues at your school? How do you think they should be resolved? Are there other concerns I'm not considering? I would love your input and feedback.