The KCK School district’s plan to allow Internet access to the laptops was a necessary move and a smart move. But all somewhat good plans can go down the drain straight after conception. The KCK District uses Barracuda Web Blocking software to monitor and prevent students from going to sites that are deemed inappropriate. But then again with too much power comes corruption. “We follow the basic guidelines of the Children’s Internet Protection Act so that we may give our students as much ability to visit websites.” The Children’s Internet Protection Act states that precautions must be taken in schools and libraries to prevent children from viewing pornography. That is the basic guidelines of the act. So why does it seem that every website is blocked? Well it pretty much is. Last year during the second semester there is an incident is known as the great blocker where almost every website was blocked. Yes, even Google, Yahoo, and MSN. These are search engine sites or e-mail websites that are very popular among people.
This incident lasted weeks. Almost every website was blocked and it made teaching and completing assignments very difficult if not impossible. When asked about why so many websites were being blocked the head IT man at the district headquarters Joe Fives would not comment. Now even with some of the sites put back on the allowance list. There are still some that are blocked that does not make sense. Blogger, a part of the Google Company is currently on the blocked list. But after some surfing a discovery of at least three unblocked porn sites a conclusion has come about that the district has not correctly identified web sites that have the need to be blocked but the district has blocked websites that kids can use to further their abilities. We have the opportunity to do great things but we will not have teh chance if our abilities and movements are controlled.
