Websites like Facebook and Instagram are blocked at school for obvious reasons; however this year, there are a few websites that are unexpectedly blocked. As another year of school passes by, more rules come with it, and this year, the rules on Internet restrictions have grown to an enormous list of unusable websites.

LISD’s Information Technology Services implemented a new and more restrictive filter this year because last year the existing filter had too many limitations in its ability to effectively block inappropriate content without disrupting access to important educational resources.

And while some websites are necessary to block, others like Yahoo! Mail or Hotmail for example, aren’t. Both of these websites are for emailing, causing some students to not be able to reach their emails from teachers during the day.

Another, surprising example is that all of the five LISD high schools newspaper’s websites were initially blocked, including our own Raider Rumbler. It seems odd that the organizations responsible for disseminating information and providing coverage of events and sports were not accessible to students. Twitter was blocked as well, making students unable to access school-related messages from the guidance office and updates from the high school newspapers. These sites have now been unblocked, but every time the filter is updated, the sites are blocked again.

If a class needs a website, teachers are able to request the site to be unblocked, but as just noted, the sites get reblocked when the filter updates. This is extremely frustrating for teachers and students, especially when trying to do research online.

A solution that would work for certain sites that utilize videos and pictures would be what was done for YouTube; Clean Video Search allows the website to be used, but limits what you watch, blocking out anything unsuitable. Even if this limits what students can do on the websites, it’s still a lot better than not being able to access them at all. This solution is one way to keep out inappropriate material while still giving students as much freedom as possible.

As for the updates, a list could be kept of all websites that needed to be unblocked, making learning more productive and efficient, and giving teachers more time to pay attention to students.