By Miranda Buttram Posted April 20, 2011
The purpose of high school is supposed to be to prepare us for the rest of our lives out in the “real world”. Yet Lowry seems to be becoming more and more isolated and censored, from the yearbook and school events, to access to the internet which is now so censored that it makes in-depth researching for most things nearly impossible.
Many news sites are blocked, resources that people need for papers or other projects that the school assigns are censored. You now have to sift through the many sites that are blocked just to find one usable link, this makes the research nearly impossible and a very large hindrance for those who have any semblance of reliance upon the internet to complete any work.
Yes, Facebook, Youtube, and other such websites are distractions and are understandably blocked, however, what is the purpose of blocking the “Human Rights Campaign” web page? Ironically the web page promotes equal rights for all people. Huffington Post and NPR are both valid news sites that are blocked from access, also. Even statistics on a large variety of subjects are blocked.
The internet, a place of unfathomable amounts of information, is supposed to be readily available for all, has now been blocked, censored, trimmed, hidden, etc. until the information you are able to access is redundant and frankly not very helpful.
How is coddling high school students conducive to preparing them for the challenges of real life?
Note: Since this piece was written, HCSD has implemented a different Internet content filter.
