Eye of the Editor: What is freedom?

One day during first period, a history teacher brought in a cart filled with new touchscreen laptops. “Today, I want you guys to go on my website and finish all the online worksheets that I assigned,” the teacher said as he was handing out the laptops. The first question was to analyze a primary source document on James K. Polk. Searching for the document on Google, the student sees many results waiting to be opened.  After clicking on the first option, the student discovers that the site is blocked by the school district’s software. He selects the second option—same result. Third, fourth, and until the seventh option, he is met with the same disappointing screen. What is the point of using laptops in class if students cannot even complete the assignment until they get home?

To keep up with the rapidly advancing digital era, Diamond Bar High School has implemented a wider usage of laptops, projectors, and iPads in the classrooms. However, even though all this integration of technology is meant to enhance teacher’s lessons and heighten students’ learning in the classrooms, one flaw hinders everyone from fully benefitting from them: an over-restrictive Internet censorship.

It is reasonable that the district should block any sites like social media, video sites, personal blogs, and sexually explicit websites. Certainly, students should not be able to freely surf through the web during class hours. But in order to censor sites that do not contain “educational” material, the district filters out many sites that actually offer greater educational information. When students try to complete class assignments using these gadgets, they are met with many restrictions.

DBHS is not to blame for the highly restrictive filter system, however, because it is the district that controls which sites to block. Because the same standard applies to students from kindergarten to the 12th grade, the filter seems especially restrictive for high school students who are able to handle more mature content as opposed to a second grader. The standard for a high school should indeed be more lenient than that of an elementary school.

Some may argue that if the Internet censorship is loosened, students will take advantage of the new filtering system and indiscriminately use it in the classroom.  However, DBHS currently holds a technology usage contract that students agree to keep in check what they are searching on the web. If the contract is broken, students will lose their technology privileges, so they are using it on their own risk. Meanwhile, the legislature must reexamine the current policy that binds such a wide range of age groups. If the policy is restricting education more than it is protecting students, a change is definitely necessary.