The “green screen” for blocked websites on school computers has sparked controversy among the students and faculty.

“It’s something the school has to enforce because there is so much unacceptable content,” media specialist Amy Franco said. “Without them, students would be reading things they shouldn’t be exposed to.”

Although some argue that the limitations are necessary, others think it hinders their ability to learn.

“They are definitely too strict though, because I had difficulty researching my senior paper,” Ashlynn Love said via email. “My paper was on discrimination faced by alternative lifestyles, and almost every website I tried to go to was blocked. At one point, I did a Google search on the term ‘demisexual’ and the search results page itself was blocked. Being unable to research at school sort of made the class that is dedicated to giving me time to work on my Senior Project pointless. For a couple of months, I could have gotten more done at home than if I had gone to school.”

This year is the first year that teachers are allowed to access YouTube at school and many are taking advantage of this in their classes. However, students still have this restriction and many others.
“There are millions of websites out there, and some just aren’t educational enough for school,” Franco said.

By Valerie Ferretti