This school year students and teachers have seen an increase in the number of websites blocked on school district devices. This makes it challenging for students and teachers to complete assignments, research, and make assignments too.
“There are a lot of school projects that I have to do on a daily basis and it’s really frustrating when I try to find information and it’s blocked,” junior Monica Ferguson said.
The district doesn’t block certain websites on purpose.
“They get blocked by the central office, they have a company that they pay. They separate websites into categories. There is an automated system that separates them in categories and blocks them, so it’s not 100%,” Josh Hagler, the Computer Technician at SCHS said.
Many teachers are unhappy with the amount of educational websites that are blocked. It not only affects the student’s learning but also the teachers’ jobs. Patrick Gebhard, a history teacher here at SCHS is one of many teachers frustrated with this, especially because it affects the assignments that he has for his students.
“It can be very frustrating because sometimes it will work one day and won’t be blocked, then the next day it is blocked. Even sometimes I’ve had websites work in 1B and not work in 2B. Some of these are websites I’ve used for 10 plus years that are very educational, sometimes websites like history.com,” Gebhard said.
Websites aren’t permanently blocked, teachers can send in a request to get a website unblocked.
“They just submit a request, it’s up to Central Office, they will review it and decide to unblock it or not,” Hagler added.
Even though teachers can submit a request, it’s still an inconvenience.
“There’s a form we can submit, but by the time I know it’s blocked, I get a response days later that it’s unblocked and the website is no longer important to me and I’ve moved past it,” Gebhard added.
