Many sites or images needed for research for school assignments are blocked on our school issued computers. This is frustrating and unfair for all students. As an example, students in anatomy cannot access some photos of basic human body parts, because they are deemed “inappropriate.” Another example is researching breast cancer is impossible on our school computers due to it including the word “breast.”
Initially our group was going to make our declaration on sex trafficking. However, due to the key word “sex,” we were unable to do so. The fact that we could not research something such as sex trafficking, a legitimate and serious issue, is a perfect example of how overly protective the school board is.
Blocking these sorts of things needed for educational purposes is ridiculous and there has to be an alternative to making sure students don’t misuse their computer privileges.
I understand the amount of caution the school board must take in making sure that we are not viewing inappropriate material, but I hardly think that topics such as sex trafficking and human anatomy are inappropriate.
The school blocking certain words on the internet to “protect” us is limiting us from learning about subjects that are not commonly discussed. We, as students, wish to further our education without having limits on what we can learn. Wanting to learn about subjects that are going on in the world and the human body is not inappropriate and shouldn’t be blocked.
— Katarina Pautz, Rhianna Croft, Audrey Zook, Zoe Paoli, Miranda Zanni and Mai Nguyen
