Most Agree District Doing Right Thing
Do students have a right to access all information on the Internet, or just some of it? To the Lakeland School District, it is not as much an issue of rights but an issue of protecting students. As a result, new Internet filters are being installed on the school computers that will block inappropriate sites, as well as online e-mail and chat providers, from students.
The filters have caused some questions and concerns to arise among Lakeland High School staff and students.
“Some people are like me and don’t have Internet access at home, and the only way they can check their e-mail is at school,” said Terah Cooper, a junior at Lakeland who is concerned that the new filters are blocking online e-mail Web sites such as Hotmail and Yahoo!Mail. “I have friends from foreign countries, and if I can’t use the school e-mail, I can’t talk to them.”
Teachers also admit that the ability to use e-mail on the school computers is important.
“Because I teach yearbook, I communicate with the publishing company through e-mail,” said Danielle Bean, a teacher at the high school. “Not having e-mail would be highly inconvenient, because a lot of the communication is time sensitive.”
As Lakeland High School principal Conrad Underdahl explained, the school’s purpose is not to block e-mail entirely.
“Because of the way the filtering system is set up, it will provide us with the system’s e-mail. We don’t really want to limit student access to e-mail; that’s not our goal. Rather, we want to limit what they receive. Currently, the district tech department is installing the new filters very rapidly. Student access will be coming along on a need basis right away, and we do not expect a significant lapse in e-mail.”
The new Internet filters are being set in place at Lakeland as a result of a state mandate to block students from accessing inappropriate material on school computers. Unfortunately, the cost of these filters can be more than $60,000. However, the Lakeland School District has received the new filters free of charge.
“Micron offered to donate the filters for free, and it’s wonderful to know that the district is saving that much money,” said Bean, who also teaches psychology. She believes that the computers should have some sort of filters. “I just think that for some students it’s a game to access sites that are inappropriate for school. It’s like telling a child not to touch a hot stove - a lot of the time he’ll touch it anyway. In the same way, sometimes teens are drawn to the forbidden or the enticing.”
Many students agree that the school has some responsibility to filter the Internet sites.
“If you are accessing the Internet from school, then in a way it is the school’s responsibility to filter the material,” Cooper said. “And they are probably implementing the new e-mail policy because of what can be e-mailed. For instance, they have no real control over students e-mailing inappropriate things to their friends.”
The new filters will provide a creative way to prevent inappropriate material from being sent through student e-mail accounts, says Underdahl, who is pleased at the progress that is being made thus far.
“Part of why we wanted a filter was so we would be accountable to the school’s patrons. We felt it was the responsibility of the district to provide safe access to the Internet,” Underdahl said. “We also understand the importance of e-mail, and we want to make sure that students who need it are allowed to set up accounts. To regulate the school e-mail from inappropriate content, we’re simply going to limit the size of the messages, so that students will not be able to receive graphics, for obvious reasons.”
Still, despite the numerous benefits of Internet filters, there can be some negative aspects. For instance, sometimes filters can accidentally block sites that do not contain questionable content. The opposite can also be true - filters cannot block all inappropriate material, and some sites are missed.
“In psychology we use the Internet very often to access sites with good information,” said Bean. “But it can be frustrating, because sometimes you can’t get to all those sites because of the filter. Not all the wrinkles are ironed out, and there will probably always be a few bugs in the system.”
Nonetheless, both staff and students tend to agree that it is important for the school’s Internet access to be regulated, and that the school holds some of the responsibility for ensuring its students are not viewing inappropriate sites online.
“I think that its a dual responsibility,” said Cooper. “Both the parents and the school are accountable, because without one - parents or the school - neither one has any real influence on the students.”