“Sorry, you don’t have permission to visit this site,” reads the student’s laptop screen. This is a familiar notification for most teenagers at Northwood. All students are provided with an individual computer. For some students, this notification is an annoyance, but for administrators, it is very important.
According to principal Justin Bartholomew, there is a huge liability involved with one-on-one student laptop programs. The school is legally responsible for all activities done by students on their school-issued laptops, which is why they have students and parents sign a liability form at the beginning of the year.
“The school system is ultimately responsible for whatever content comes through and that [the students] get exposed to,” Bartholomew said.
When giving teenagers permission to use the Internet, the school must regulate what they can access. This is important for school systems that provide students with laptops. If a student used school-issued technology to access inappropriate or illegal content, they would face disciplinary action.
As for the school, there isn’t much precedent for what could happen to them. The spread of technology in schools has been so rapid that the law hasn’t caught up yet. Outraged parents may sue the school for allowing the student to access inappropriate material, but with no precedent set, it can’t be determined who would win that lawsuit.
Some may argue that these restrictions go overboard.
“I think they overdo it on certain websites,” sophomore Kylie Belcher said. “Like with YouTube, sometimes it will block videos that actually are educational.”
Sophomore Courtney Wolfe shares this point of view.
“I think they go over the top,” Wolfe said. “They block stuff that shouldn’t be blocked, like music. I know one time I was doing something for my church, and I saw that Christian music was blocked. Also, if they’re going to give us laptops, they have to treat us like adults if they want us to act like adults.”
Students and some teachers find the controls to be inconsistent.
“There are certain websites that come up blocked that there’s no understanding to it,” English teacher Kathleen Greenlee said. “Maybe a teacher was able to utilize it at some point, and then the students can’t access it.”
The list of blocked material is constantly changing based on the school’s needs. YouTube used to be completely blocked from student use, then it was completely accessible, and now there are certain restrictions within the website itself.
“Students would hop on during Plus One and be on YouTube… and we’d have a video up that everyone was watching,” Bartholomew said. “It completely destroyed the bandwidth.”
As can be expected, popular social media sites like Facebook, Instagram and Tumblr are blocked, but Twitter is still accessible to students. Chatham County School’s Executive Director for Technology & Media Education, Keith Medlin, explained the dichotomy between education and Twitter.
“Twitter is being used more frequently across all grade levels as a way for our teachers to collaborate and communicate with students and parents what is happening in their classrooms,” Medlin said.
Policy 3225-4312-7320 states, “the board recognizes that it is impossible to predict with certainty what information on the Internet students may access or obtain,” (Section C, “Restricted Material on the Internet”). For this reason, there are extensive restrictions set in place. So what happens when the students outsmart the restrictions? They download proxies and other software that reverse the roadblocks set in place.
“This year, they did some serious blocking, and I couldn’t [download a proxy],” Wolfe said. “But pretty much everyone uses [a proxy].”
However, downloading software like this can result in disciplinary action. The One-to-One Parent Student Laptop Handbook states, “violations may include the loss of Internet access at school and other disciplinary action as outlined in the Student Code of Conduct,” (Section VII, “E-mail”). Many students aren’t aware of what consequences can come with altering their laptops. These consequences include after school detention, In School Suspension, Out of School Suspension and loss of laptop for up to a semester.
“Many workplaces have even more restrictive policies in place and attempts to bypass those security precautions can result in termination,” Medlin said. “As a school system, we attempt to use these violations as learning opportunities for students.”
– By Chloe Maynard