Privacy or Productivity

HOW THE CYBER SECURITY MEASURES MIGHT NOT BE THE BEST OPTION FOR THE STUDENT BODY

By Gracie Balkema

By enrolling in an Oregon public school, you are signing up for certain responsi-

bilities and holding yourself to certain standards as laid out in the student handbook. You see a lot about dress codes and academic responsibilities, and especially cyber security. The district is very serious about the internet safety of its students. Not only do the teachers have access to your Chromebook, but so does the entire administration. Rob Singleton said that the administrators and technicians in the district are able to monitor your screen when certain keywords pop up. They can monitor you, put you on a watch list, and ban you from certain privileges such as email and google chat.

28.3%

Percent of students at West have read the student handbook.

51%

sites in order to maintain their funding, and to keep the students using the internet safely.

“There are certain categories that we must block, and they are sort of obvious ones like pornography, violence,

we must block in order to be compliant with CIPA [Children’s Internet Protection Act] ,” Rob Singleton, GAPS technology director, said.

The internet access is managed by the district and the admin at the school. They control the websites that are on the blocked list based on age group and building.

But by protecting the cyber security of the students in the district, the administration is also blocking our ability to learn. These seemingly helpful tools also block educational websites that contain certain keywords.

For example, it is relatively hard to research serious subjects such as 'breast

hate, gambling. There are just a handful of broad categories of websites that

cancer' because 'breast' is a keyword. It also makes researching certain other subjects hard because all image based sites are blocked, and you cannot access sites such as Google Images or Unsplash. These websites become blocked because they can contain inappropriTHERE ARE CERTAIN CATEGORIES THAT WE MUST BLOCK, AND THEY “ ate images. But honestly, if you want to bypass the blocking, and find those im-

ARE SORT OF OBVIOUS ONES LIKE PORNOGRAPHY, VIOLENCE,

ages, there is a way. Why limit internet access HATE, GAMBLING. for all, when it’s a handful of students who are the problem? Now, not all of the fault falls on the district. The school principal and administration can also request for websites to get blocked and unblocked based on what they feel is appropriate. This can be a good thing, because it can block problem sites that students are spending too much time on, such as social media. Monitoring our screen isn’t the

Legend Endberg

main issue. In some cases, it can help struggling students or catch startling behavior. Those keywords don’t just pick up on people doing inappropriate things, they can alert counselors, admin, and even the police if an issue demands it. The real problem is blocking the sites and videos that we need to access in our day to day lives. As high school students, we shouldn’t have to skirt around blocked websites to find information. If you do go searching for those inappropriate things, be prepared to deal with the repercussions. For the rest of the student body… you deserve to get the most out of the resources we have available. That means accessing the websites and videos you need, and not having to wait for the district to unblock them. We as students should have access to the materials we need, without all of those obstacles. We should have a voice in the websites and videos that get blocked, because ultimately we are the ones working around those obstacles to get work done. Something needs to change.

Percent of West students use a personal computer at school

“Being a registered student in the district, we can and are able to monitor the activity over the network. The reason is that because the network is here for instructional purposes. It is only here to help you with your studies and your grades, and getting your schoolwork done. It is not here to hold Halo parties.”

“A website or a type of website might get blocked, like social media, [because] there are requests from your principals and your schools. They can also say a category blocked this legitimate site, can you please put it on the yes access is okay list. They can make exceptions.”

This constant monitoring is an invasion of privacy because we as people should be able to have cyber freedom; especially for the majority of students who use their personal laptop for school.

It is not enough that the district is watching our every online interaction, but they have to prohibit certain web-