USD 232 currently has a censorship policy in place to prevent student access to Web sites and Internet material that is deemed inappropriate for student use. However, this policy is generally little more than a nuisance that prevents productive activity from taking place while not adequately shielding students from the sites that are an issue.

The USD 232 policy makes sense at first glance. Of course the district wants to not let students view inappropriate sites, play video games online or access social networking sites during school. However, most of the district’s efforts are misguided and ineffective.

One policy that often creates a headache for students is blocking sites like Google Images. Supposedly, this prevents students from looking up inappropriate images on the web, but it does not do this to a great enough extent. While some of the more common image search sites are blocked, others are not. Additionally, resourceful students have found ways to bypass the security on more common sites. Given that it is impossible to block every single site, these censorship policies will never be anything more than an irritant to students trying to use the sites for legitimate school activities without providing any extra security.

Another aspect of the censorship policy that does not really accomplish its goal is attempted blocking of game sites. Just as it is impossible to block every single image site, it is impossible to totally prevent access to online games. Any student that truly wants to play online games on school computers can easily find unblocked sites with a simple Google search.

Finally, the district tries to prevent student access to social networking sites such as Facebook through their censorship, but again their efforts prove ineffective. Resourceful students have been able to find ways around the barriers set up by the district, and some networking sites are left unblocked, undermining the entire message. The solution to misuse of technology is not censorship. It is not even technological. The solution lies in the supervision in the classroom. Regardless of the effectiveness of the firewalls and security measures, the only truly effective method of policing the issue is effective observation by the teacher in the classroom. If teachers aren’t willing to stop their students from playing games or using Twitter, technology alone won’t do the trick.

The fact of the matter is, the district censorship policy is not worth the effort put into it. It is too porous to do any good, so its only meaningful effect on students is to prevent them from accessing some legitimate sites for educational purposes. The district should be focusing its efforts on other, more productive activities.