Website bans at Msj and fusd: how school wi-fi affects learning

By Angelina Chen, Anandita Devata, Sahas Goli & Anushka Vasudev Staff Writers

From Google Classroom to educatonal Crash Course videos, modern educaton has quickly evolved to merge paths with technology, enhancing student learning. However, this increase in technology use has also boosted security breaches and access to inappropriate or distractng online content during school hours. As a result, FUSD blocked a range of internatonal, gaming, and governmental websites from being accessed on school Wi-Fi. Unfortunately, this has afected teachers’ lesson plans, as they are unable to access online tools, consequently impacting students’ educaton. While it is important that schools try to limit the platorms that can interfere with students’ educaton, it is equally essental that they take acton when their censorship conficts with productve teaching in classrooms.

With the rise of technology in educaton during the early 2000s, the federal government implemented legislaton to protect students from explicit content and cybersecurity threats. One such law is The Children's Internet Protecton Act (CIPA), which mandates that schools and libraries that receive federal funding for Internet connecton must adopt a "Internet safety policy" that flters out certain types of objectonable online content.

However, the act does not elaborate on what platforms qualify as “inappropriate mater” or “harmful content,” leaving it up to school districts to regulate online content. For example, media platorms like Instagram, Facebook, and Discord are considered as disruptons to student learning, but they are crucial for on-campus organizatons that regularly share informaton with the student body. Even worse, according to an artcle by Resilient Educator, counselors have also struggled to access online materials to address sensitve topics such as suicide or mental health due to the search flters in many schools. Additonally, these bans ofen encompass websites that discuss policies and culture in foreign countries. Many students refer to these sites for research and to gain a beter understanding of other cultures, especially for language courses, making these bans harmful.

Moreover, content fltering widens the gap between students who have access to technology at home and those who rely on school devices and WiFi. According to a 2020 study from Common Sense Media, Boston Consultng Group, and the Southern Educaton Foundaton, there are about “12 million students in [the US] who stll lack any internet access at all.” Diferences in income and socioeconomic status prevent these students from enjoying the educatonal benefts and opportunites that at-home Internet access provides. According to a survey from the Pew Research Internet Project, nearly three tmes as many "teachers of the lowest income students say that a lack of resources among students to access digital technologies is a 'major challenge' to incorporatng more digital tools into their teaching." Instead of fltering out supposedly harmful content, these online restrictons flter out equality in the educatonal system, hurtng marginalized students the most.

Stll, some people argue that blocking certain websites and apps is benefcial because it ensures that students stay on task during school hours. To schools, preventng access to specifc websites provides parents and educators with reassurance that their children are focused in school and are paying atenton, but this level of surveillance can only go so far. Moreover, students can easily fnd loopholes to this, such as using their mobile data or hotspot. As these bans are relatvely easy for students to circumvent, more harm than good is created. At the end of the day, it is the student’s responsibility to prioritze their educaton, and schools should not sacrifce providing an efectve learning environment in order to provide parents and teachers superfcial comfort. "We shouldn't be creatng a situaton in our desire for security that forces students to go of district Wi-Fi in order to do their academic work," Irvington High School Library Media Teacher Allyson McAuley said.

Before banning new websites, school districts should seek the opinion and input of the staf and student body, as they lie at the heart of these issues, being the ones that are forced to quickly adapt to

Msj Voices

new policies that ofen have not been thoroughly reviewed or tested. For example, school ofcials and students have opportunites to discuss these new policies during the regular SURFBoardE meetngs that student representatves hold to discuss topics such as home-to-school transportaton and course oferings, but no efectve acton was taken from either side to review relevant issues, such as website bans. FUSD should also maintain an informed student and staf body, rather than leaving students and staf in the dark for almost a month prior to offcial communicaton. Ultmately, districts contnue to implement their own ideas at the expense of effectve student learning.

However, these opportunites to learn from mistakes and feedback are not limited to school districts. By encouraging transparency and communicaton, staf can work with one another to unblock sites and fnd new resources. Currently, staf can “submit sites to Google Form or fll out a support tcket and [district IT staf] will whitelist sites individually… but individual whitelistng is not the most efcient way to tackle this issue,” McAuley said. Students, too, can play an integral role in advocatng for internet access by informing their teachers when they encounter a blocked site so it can be whitelisted by the district. Additonally, students should seek opportunites to voice their concerns to the district and spread awareness to their peers through joining local youth-led organizatons such as SURFBoardE and the Fremont Youth Advisory Commission.

As students and teachers become more dependent on online resources in educatonal setngs, it is essental that we address unnecessary censorship while maintaining accountability in schools to improve overall student learning. ▪

Have you used school wi-fi and been restricted from websites? If so, what were you looking for? what did you do?

“I've been blocked from viewing schoolappropriate websites while on school Wi-Fi. For example, when I was completing my AP Spanish project, I needed to watch a slam poetry piece by an Afro-Latina author about her struggles regarding racism on youtube, but the school Wi-Fi/account restricted the video.” — Shivi Narang, 11

“I started to see that something was a little off in February when I was looking for a site about a French project, and so I started looking at the week before, which was February 8. I couldn’t load some sites, but I really needed it. I tried my computer and my phone, but it got worse and worse. The week after we started talking about a project that was very hard to explain to students, so I wanted to show them a website, but it was blocked. I emailed someone from the curriculum committee and they replied to me that all the international sites are blocked. I also emailed the Chief of Technology, and he hasn’t replied to me.” — French Teacher Herveline Sartori

do you think schools should block certain websites on their devices and the internet?

“Often teachers want to show a video in class that relates to their unit of study, but they can't because it’s restricted to FUSD accounts.” — Shivi Narang, 11

“Obviously there are websites that are bad, but I don't think they should block international sites. I was kind of shocked, because my AP students were looking at recycling in France, and the French government website was blocked. However, there was information on Facebook. I would say that they shouldn’t block websites that are very useful.” — French Teacher Herveline Sartori

How would students benefit or be harmed by the blocking of websites?

“Students benefit from the blocked websites because it’d probably let them stay on track if they’re trying to access these blocked websites during class time. However, students can be harmed by these blocked websites if it’s directly related to something school related. Say when you want to look up a specific answer to a question and you find a website that had the answers but was blocked for access. You would probably get frustrated due to their inability to look for something schoolrelated, all caused by the school itself.” — Tara Roy, 10

“During Mission Anime meetings, all of the anime watching websites are blocked, so we have to use alternative sites. It’s also happened for sites we need to use for school.” — Anna

Zhu, 12

“It honestly depends, because a lot of the times when I’m researching something that is educational, it doesn’t make sense to block that. For any dangerous sites, yes, they should block them.” —

Arushi Subramanyam, 9

“Some really educational websites might be blocked. However, blocking websites can also protect our learning environment at school, allowing students to excel and removing distractions.” — Anna Zhu, 12

Teacher Herveline Sartori

“It really impacted my kids last week. Every February we do a Black History Month project, and students need to do a presentation. Students had a really hard time. They ended up looking at English websites to translate. It kind of defeats the purpose of having a French class if students have to go to American or English sites to do schoolwork.” — French

“If they block student websites, it doesn’t let us do as much work as we can and limits our resources. I do see where they are coming from.” — Arushi Subramanyam, 9